The Chaos Paradox
by BigBro359
Summary: A new twist on the idea of PercyXArtemis I will be adding my ideas to the basic idea of Petermis and I am going to try to do a new twist on how this comes about as Percy fights a new nemesis. strong sex themes & intense violence. Do not read if you don't like this stuff because I don't want your complaints about it there will be at least 1 intense rape scene but it is for a reason
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** **Ok so this is my first story and with it, I am going to be trying to combine a bunch of ideas from other PercyXArtemis stories, while adding some of my own. This story will have a lot of lemon themes and will also hopefully have a good story line going with some blood and guts and stuff like that. PJO does not belong to me at all etc. etc. enjoy!**

CHAPTER 1:

Percy's POV

This morning I am practicing down in the sword fighting arena, trying to get rid of this massive ball of nerves that is in my gut. The Hephaestus cabin recently made a massive high tech training arena that is underneath the real one that rather impressive. Think of the Danger Room from the X-men comics, then add about a shit ton of monster programs and individualized work out plans along with general levels. Then you will have the basic idea. So I went down and set it for the Percy Jackson workout plan. Because I am, according to the Hephaestus cabin, "too powerful to plan for", my workout plan provides a random assortment of monster replicas for me to fight for however long I set it for and so I set it for about an hour. Today, it started me out with some Dracaena, then it moved me on to Drakon training, then I finished with the Minotaur. Next, I go to the canoe lake and go for a swim to clear my head some more, and wash off the stink from my workout. When I feel ready I sheath Riptide and start walking out of the arena I hesitate slightly, feeling the engagement ring in my pocket, and thinking, "Am I sure about this? Am I ready for this kind of responsibility?" Before I can rethink this and back myself out, I set off to find Annabeth. I ask Chiron where she is. "She is down at the beach last time I saw her." Chiron answers. "Thanks teach! Wish me luck" I said and take off towards the beach. When I get there, I see Annabeth out surfing on the large rollers coming in. When she sees me, she smiles and waves and I decide to help her out and summon a perfect wave to bring her in. When she makes it in, she smiles and says, "Thanks Percy!" and turns around to pick up her surf board. When she turns back around, I am kneeling before her and holding up the box with the ring in it.

She gasps, and says "oh my Gods! Percy, it's beautiful! Is this what I think it is?" I smile and nod, saying "Yes, Annabeth, it is. Annabeth, will you marry me?" She suddenly starts crying and says, "Yes, Percy, I will" I jump up and wrap her in a hug and we began to make out.

Narrator (I will only be using this occasionally as it will only be used for foreshadowing)

And so the happy couple set of, planning to tell the Olympian Council tonight, because they like to know what is going on in their Hero's life (Their Hero being Percy). Unbeknownst to them, there was a watcher in the woods. A newer camper named Mark Debersius, a rather unusual son of Demeter, was watching from the woods along the beach.

Mark POV

"Damn! That is a nice piece of ass right there! Oh my GODS! The things that I would do to her if I could get her alone!" I thought, "Too bad that asshole Jackson just proposed to her otherwise she would be all mine." All of a sudden, I hear this whispery voice from seemingly nowhere, but everywhere at once. It says "Who says she cannot be yours, young Mark Debersius? You are powerful enough that you could take her if you wanted to; all that stands in your way is that asshole Percy Jackson. Take her from him and BREAK his spirit and will." I laugh at this voice, saying "As awesome and strong as I am, Percy is favored by the Gods, if I was to do that, I would never survive. Why they love that weak ass pussy, I will never know, but I do not have the power to face the Gods. Percy, I can take, them, I cannot." The whispery voice replies, "While they are powerful, I am far more powerful. If you wish to have this girl, and more, I can protect you, but for me to do this, you must first pledge yourself to me and renounce the Gods. I quickly answer back, "What do you mean by "more"?" The voice answers "Power! Strength! Wealth! You will be the KING of all when I take over! You will be my envoy, my voice, to the people of this world! You will lead my armies against the Gods, their allies, and their kin. All you must do is pledge yourself to me" "DONE" I say, "What must I say to pledge myself to you?" The voice replies "All you must do is say: I, Mark Debersius, Renounce the Gods, and pledge myself to CHAOS, and swear to do all that I can to serve him." I repeated this oath and there was a bright flash followed by a loud laughing. Suddenly, I felt stronger, faster and just plain awesome.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok so this was the first chapter, and I feel that it turned out rather well but you are the readers! You decide! But if you don't write some reviews and I will do my best to make the next chapter better. I will be updating whenever I can, but I do have school and that does make it hard to promise a daily update, but I will try to post as often as I can. I hope to make each chapter about this length or longer, because I hate it when it is a bunch of short chapters. If you disagree let me know though, and I will break it up more. I will hopefully be able to start some other stories once I get this one going. I love you all and hope you will continue this journey with me into the unknown. Literally I have no fucking clue besides a basic outline of an idea to go by so any suggestions are welcome other than that we will see where this will take us. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello once again audiences! First, sorry for the false alarm on the post! I forgot to add something so stupid me, but here it is now. Thank you for not abandoning my story immediately after the first chapter. I apologize for the fact that my stories will probably be taking more time to write due to the fact that my computer has stopped running word. Something to do with Windows installer, but never fear, for google docs is here to save the day! This does, however, mean that I can only type when I have internet which should not be a problem except during the summer. For those of you that are concerned that this story will be too short and you will be left with nothing to read, do not fear, I can always extend it and I am not a very concise person to begin with. I do, however, welcome ideas and I encourage you to PM me if you have an idea. I am also looking for someone to bounce ideas off, simply because I do better if somebody is telling me my ideas are stupid. Now that I have sufficiently bored you with my ridiculously long ramblings in this author's note, lets get on to the good stuff! Shall we begin then?**

CHAPTER 2

Annabeth's POV:

After Percy proposed to me, we walked along the beach for a while, just to enjoy each other's company, and to talk about our new future together. We decided that we wanted to get married in one month's time, in the middle of July so that we could have our wedding on the beach. We decided that we were going to have our wedding in Camp Half-blood, and would get the Gods to allow my parents in and Paul and Sally, or, should I call them Mom and Dad as well? After we are married, we plan on making a family in New Rome. We both want to have kids, but we are not sure what to name them. We talked about our future for a long time until we finally decided to go to tell the Olympians.

Percy's POV:

When we got to Olympus, the Gods were already there so we asked for an audience with the it was granted we went in and Zeus asked with his booming voice "What do you need young Percy? We have not heard from you in a while. What is it in our favored hero that he comes before us to say?" I stood up and said "Uncle, nothing is wrong, Annabeth and I just wanted to tell you our great news; Annabeth and I are engaged!" The Olympians erupted with words of congratulations. When they all settled down, Hephaestus stood and announced, "I would like to give a gift to these two fine young heroes. Would anybody else like to present gifts as well?" Most of the other Gods said that they would. The only ones that did not was Hera, because she hates Annabeth, and Artemis because she does not like marriage, and given the fact that she is a virgin Goddess, it was understandable.

From Hephaestus, we got our wedding bands. "These bands," he said, "will allow you to always know if the other person is in danger." From Poseidon, we received two things. "The first present I have for you my son, is a house for you and Annabeth that is available for you to have as a second home for you two to live in Atlantis with me. You may think of it as a vacation home, if you wish, or you may use it as your main home. It is your choice. My second gift is not actually for both of you, it is actually for Annabeth." he said. "What is it, P… Father?" she asked. Poseidon smiled at her and held out two bracelets. "These bracelets," he said, "Will allow you to have some of the same powers as my children. They will not allow you to control water or the earth like Percy can, but they will allow you to breathe underwater, decide when you will get wet and when you will stay dry, and it will allow you to survive and see at any depth. This is so that you can visit Atlantis, and for you to enjoy all the wonders of the ocean Percy can show you." Annabeth gasped, and said "Thank you, Father. How can we ever repay you?" Poseidon smiled and winked at me and said slyly, "Well, I have always wanted grandchildren." Annabeth's face turned as red as a tomato, and I am sure mine was just as red. Poseidon laughed and said "Relax, I am teasing. No thanks is necessary."

Next was Zeus. "My gift," he said, "Is not as grand but I think you will appreciate it all the same. My gift is that I will allow any God or Goddess that chooses to, to go to your wedding. Normally, the Ancient Laws would not permit this, but since neither of you have any mortal friends other than the Oracle, I shall allow it." At this, of the Gods and Goddesses said that they would be there. Next to stand was Athena, or I guess Mom now. "My gift," she said, "Is that I will supply you both with all the supplies and resources within reason, needed to design and build your dream house." Annabeth was ecstatic, and I was actually pretty excited too. The ability to build a dream house is not something that comes along very often, and with Wise Girl designing it to fit both of our ideas, it is going to be awesome. The next person to offer their gift was surprisingly Ares. "My gift to this little punk ass hero and his girl," he said with his usual sneer, "is a matching set of swords and a matching set of armour. These armours and swords are made of a special alloy that is made by combining Imperial Gold, human titanium, and Celestial Bronze, making it nearly indestructible, while remaining light comfortable." I thanked Ares for his generous gift already thinking how much fun my next battle with the Minotaur is going to be. "This alloy," he continued, startling me because I thought he was done, "Also has a curious effect when kinetic energy is applied to it. When applied, it stores this energy, only to be released roughly 2 fold when you hit something with it. However, because hitting something to release the built up energy also creates kinetic energy, you must purge the armour of all stored energy after every battle, or it could reach a critical mass and explode." "Oh boy this is going to be fun" I thought, "Oh the things I can do with this. This shall be a fun new toy."

Next was Hades. I honestly did not know what to expect from Hades. Ever since I had returned his and Hestia's thrones to them, they have basically treated me like one of their own. "My gift to you two is 2-fold." he said with a smile. "My first gift is to Percy, and it is partially in thanks for returning Hestia and I to our thrones. Percy, to you I give all the same powers that my son Nico has. I know that you two are very good friends and I trust that he will teach you to use these powers like a boss. My second gift is by no means certain, but I believe that there is a good chance of it being accepted. I will journey with you to see the three Fates, and we shall ask them to allow us to bring the heroes Charlie Beckendorf, Bianca Di Angelo, Silena Beauregard, and Luke Castellan back from the dead. Their lives all ended far too soon, and I feel that It would do this world a service to bring them back. But in the end it will be up to the Fates." My mouth hung open like a fish and I stuttered out, "Y- y- you would d- do that? Just for getting your throne back?" Hades just smiled. Next was Hestia. "Percy," she said, "You have been like a son to me over the years, and for that, I thank you. You have treated me with respect rarely seen in mortals or demigods. For this I offer you the same thing that Hades did; you will have power over fire, but it will be up to you to figure out how to control it. In addition I, along with Demeter place our blessing on you that you will always have plenty to feed you and your kin." I graciously thanked her, not entirely sure what i was going to do with all of this, but there was still more to come!

Next was Apollo. He gave me a million watt smile and said, "I bless the two of you to be fantastic musicians. You both can now sing like angels, and you may each pick an instrument for you to be, well, as awesome as me at." I thought for a minute and said "I would like to be able to play the guitar like a boss." Annabeth said, "I would like to play the flute." Apollo snapped his fingers and we both had our chosen instrument in our hands and knew how to play it. Next was Hermes. Again, I did not know what to expect. Hermes got along pretty well so he could give me anything really. "My gift," he said, "is a pair of flying shoes. for each of you. Have fun and cause some great pranks." Last and definitely least, was Dionysus. "My gift," he said, "is that neither of you will ever suffer a hangover again, and I will provide the beverages for your wedding." The last person to give a gift was Aphrodite. As soon as Aphrodite stood up, Annabeth and I were immediately nervouse. Aphrodite's gifts often have a bite to them, and we were nervous as to what she was going to do. "My gift to you two," she said, "is that I will prepare both of you for your wedding and organize the wedding for you. I will need to talk to you both later to organize it how you want it but I will get it all set up for you." Annabeth and I both thanked her, even though we were still a little nervous.

Now that all the gods that were going to give gifts had given gifts, we thanked them for their generosity and left to go and tell our mortal parents. Both sets were ecstatic and we all began to make plans for the wedding

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok everyone, you have made it through hopefully the most boring chapter in the story. Hopefully the rest will be far more actiony and bloody and all that good stuff. This chapter did have to be in here because I have now introduced just about all of the characters I plan on having. I will have more characters, but they will mostly just be a passing mention. I don't have plans to add any more characters right now but as I have already said, I have no clue what I am going to do beyond the basic outline. Because of this I again ask you to send me a PM if you are interested in helping me or you have any special brainchildren that you would like to see in a story. I may or may not use it if it works with my plan and it is not stupid or ridiculous. You are awesome to the 10th degree of awesome and beyond. If you want a picture of ares' present look up **** albums/s152/acidloveforever/sexy_knight_armor_ **

******That is kind of how I pictured it, but if you know of a better one, by all means, let me know. Now I am exhausted and would kind of like to go to bed, but first the customary ending shit. If you like this review and I will get back to you on any questions you may have. I love you all you people are why I do this. Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to read my stuff.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello again readers, and thank you for continuing to read my story. I can't tell you how awesome it is to have subscribers to this story, especially since this is only chapter 3. The only thing I would change is that I would like more reviewers, but that is your choice. I hate it when people say they won't post unless people review, so I am not going to do that. However, those that have problems or suggestions please do review, or I will just keep doing the same thing. If you have a problem with the an already posted chapter I CAN EDIT (I think) so feel free to tell me. Now for some thank you's. I have been meaning to do this. Thank you Amy for getting me started into Fanfic, and for reading my first chapter and helping me to write good fanfic. Thank you Ally K and Kristen Z for helping to edit. Finally thank you all of you that are reading. Now! Enough of my ramblings let us begin.**

Chapter 3

Narrator:

A month has past since Percy and Annabeth talked to the Gods and Goddesses of Olympus. It is now the day of the young couple's wedding and they are both tremedously excited. Percy is currently at the bottom of the ocean in Atlantis, (Which I have with a creative license decided that it is about 5 miles off shore from Camp Half-Blood's beach) pacing back and forth in his father's palace, completely losing his mind with nervousness.

Percy's POV:

"Ohshitohshitohshit" I thought as I was walking back and forth. "What if something goes wrong. What if Athene protests. what if… what if…" Suddenly my dad walked in. He looked pretty good in a tux, and he looked very proud of me. When he saw me he gave me one of his enourmous smiles; the kind that makes you feel like everything is going to be ok.

"Percy, my boy! Are you ready to do this? Where are the wedding bands?" He said. "I am wearing mine and Annabeth is wearing hers we will give them to the ring bearer when we get there. Annabeth seemed to think that I would lose them if I had both." I said. Dad laughed, saying, "Yes, you probably would you have about the attention span of a dolphin." I did my best to look indignant, despite the fact that they were both right. "I'm ready, I am just so nervous! I don't have time to go to the arena and there is water all around us, so I doubt that will help. I just can't stand waiting like this!"

Dad smiled again and said, "Why are you nervous? Everything is all ready, your mom and step father will be there and they will both finally be able to see the camp! Everything is perfect! So just relax." I answered back, " I really want to and you are right, everything is perfect. I just cannot shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen, but I don't know what. It is just a gut feeling but I can't shake it." "What could possibly go wrong? ALL of the olympians will be there, plus we have the camp borders, and we have most of the Roman camp here with Camp Half-Blood for the wedding. Nothing will attack us and nothing can get in to begin with! Relax." he said.

"I guess you are right, I am being stupid." I said and tried to relax and get ready.

Mark's POV:

At last! Today is the day of the wedding, and I get to break that loser Pussy Jackass' spirit. Not to mention I get to have some…. heh heh…. FUN with his girl! This is going to be awesome! I better get the room ready though.

Annabeth's POV:

Today is the day! I can't wait! I am going to finally be married to Seaweed Brain, and then we can have a family! Nothing could be more perfect. Well, I guess I better go over to the Aphrodite Cabin. Aphrodite told me to meet her there so that she could get me ready, and when she is being this generous, I better not be late!

Narrator

And so while Annabeth is heading to the Aphrodite cabin, Percy is getting dressed in his tux. While Annabeth is heading to the Aphrodite cabin she notices some odd vines…

Annabeth's POV

About half way to the Aphrodite cabin, I noticed some vines. I had never seen this kind of vine around here, so naturally, when I saw it, I was rather curious. When I leaned over to see them better, they suddenly moved lightning fast! They grabbed my wrists and ankles, and began to drag me off to the woods! "AHHH...ack" I started to scream before another vine showed up and rammed itsself down my throat, effectively silencing me. I continued to thrash and yank on them desperately "MY KNIFE!" I thought reaching for my thigh where it usually was. SHIT it was not there! I had not taken it with me because I did not expect any problems today! "What can I do what can I do… THE RING!" I thought, fighting to reach into my pocket. Hephaeastus said that it would alert the other ring if I was in trouble! "I hope Percy is wearing his!" I thought slipping it on as I disappeared into the woods.

Percy's POV:

Just as I finished putting on my tux, my wedding band twinged and began to get warm. "What the…" I began to say when I remembered what Hepheastus said about the rings "OH SHIT" I thought "Annabeth is in trouble!" As fast as possible, I took off my tux and threw on some jeans and a t-shirt and grabbed the latest shield that Tyson had made for me and Riptide. As I swam out of the palace, I gave my tux to my dad, rapidly explaining the situation and asking him to bring it with him as I took off at about 15 knots toward the beach, rapidly preparing myself for the coming battle.

Annabeth's POV:

Finally the vines stopped dragging me when I had reached a large cave that I had never seen before. This immediately worried me because I had memorized every map of Camp Half-Blood, and I had never seen this cave. Something had to have made it and it was made recently. Only a God could have made a cave inside the week since the woods were last scouted. Next thing I knew, I was blindfolded and moving again. When I stopped, I was lying on something soft, but obviously, I didn't know what. Now the vines let me go and took the blindfold off of me, and I immediately sat up. The first thing I saw, was that I was sitting on a bed, and a large one at that. Immediately after that, I saw a shadowy figure standing off to the side. The lights seemed to be focused on the bed so it left the figure in the shadows. "Hello, Annabeth," the figure spoke at last proving to have a rather deep voice, that seemed to come from everywhere at once. "and welcome to my little room of fun. I have SOOO many toys in here for us to play with, and do you know what the best part is? Percy will NEVER find you here, so we can have ALL… THE FUN… WE WANT. Now hows about we get started." He said as he came into the light. It was Mark and he was completely naked! I gasped as realization dawned on me and I began to get up to run away, to hurt him, to do anything to keep that asshole away from me. He snapped his fingers and vines shot out of the darkness, lashing around my wrists and ankles, dragging me down and binding me to this bed in a spread eagle fashion. I began to scream "HELP HELP SOMEBODY HELP" He snapped his fingers again, and a vine that was shaped like a large penis gagged me, effectively silencing me.

"Ah ah ah" he said, wagging his finger like a mother scolding a child. "It wouldn't matter anyway. I have this room completely sealed and soundproofed. BUT since you insist on struggling, we will give that whore mouth of yours something to suck on, and put you in a nice comfortable position. I must say, I was hoping you would chose this way. It makes it so much more FUN for me."

Mark's POV:

"At last, I have her. All of my planning and preparation has finally paid off. Oh this will be so much FUN!" I thought as I walked over to her. As I stood by the bed watching her struggle, I took in her smokin' body. She had a really nice rack, they were at least a D probably even a DD. She had a nice ass too, the kind that are OOOH so much fun to smack. Her lips were nice and big, perfect for wrapping around a massive dick. It was her eyes that were my favorite though. They were so full of hate, and yet there was fear in them too, mixed with all the defiance and stubbornness. It will be fun to break her.

But, now I must get started.

Annabeth's POV:

At first he was just standing there, looking at me as I was gagging on the cock plant. I felt hope; maybe he had lost his nerve, but alas, it was not to be. He pulled out a large, familiar looking knife. IT WAS MY KNIFE. The fucker had stolen my knife. He held it close to my face, and then began to cut my clothes off. Too late, I relized, that I was wearing a matching lacy bra and thong, because I had expected to have my first time tonight with Percy after the wedding. When he saw this he laughed, saying "Damn, bitch! You must have been expecting me! I think those can stay for now. Don't worry though, they will be coming soon enough."

After he had cut all my clothes off and I was basically naked, he snapped his fingers again. I tensed myself, expecting to be let go, but the vines tied me all up so that I could not move, then they bent me over the bed. I began struggling again, but the vines were too strong. He walked up behind me, right to where I could not see him. All of a sudden, I felt a massive amount of pain in my ass! "AHHHH" I screamed into the cock plant. He laughed and said "Yes bitch, scream! I love it when you scream, because there is nothing you can do!" Again and again, he smacked my ass laughing the whole time. After my ass was on fire, used a vine and began whipping my back and boobs, making me scream harder and louder. By the time he was done I was crying, begging him to stop. The humiliation was too great.

He then took the cock plant out of my mouth and told me that if I bit him, he would break my knees. He then smacked me in the face and when I opened my mouth to scream he shoved his cock in my mouth. I tried to bite him anyway, but I hadn't realized that part of the vine had become detached in my mouth making a ring that would allow me to open and close my mouth, but would not let me close my teeth, so I failed. He then forced me to give him a blow job, and he then started face fucking me, ramming his cock deep into my throat, making me gag and choke. Finally, he rammed it farther than ever, and just left it there. I began to struggle as I started to lose conscience, until he finally pulled out of my throat and began shooting his cum all over my face, rope after rope. Only after he had completely covered my face did he stop cumming. It was all over me. I had never felt more ashamed in my life. I could not even wipe it off because I was still tied up. I began to cry, begging him, "Stop, please! No more. Haven't you done enough? I can't take it anymore! Let me go!" I felt helpless. I hate feeling helpless! As a child of Athena, I should never feel helpless!

I began to look around and formulate a plan. Unfortunately, the only plan I could come up with involved me playing along, and after the fight I had put up, he would never believe it if I just started seducing him! Oh well I can't do anything but try!

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, I realize this is a horrible place to end the chapter, and believe me I wish I didn't have to do this, but my word count for this chapter was really getting up there, and I have been working on this for a while. The next chapter will basically be a direct continuation of this one, then the chapter after will be when Percy comes in, and… well I can't give up all my secrets, can I? Thank you for continuing this with me and I hope you all can hate Mark as much as I am trying to make you. I really did not want to have this whole rape thing going on, but I could not come up with anything to make you guys hate Mark more, and to make Percy hate him more. I can however, promise that what I am doing has never been done quite like this, and I have more than a couple tricks up my sleaves that I think you all will enjoy and I can also promise that there will never be another scene like this. I do not particularly like this scene from the reader's point of view, but as the writer, I am doing it to show you how much of a fucking sadistic asshole bastard Mark is. It is funny as I am writing about him I am hating him more and more, but enough with my ramblings! I need to get to work on the next chapter so that I can get past this unpleasant scene. Adios me amigos**


	4. Chapter 4

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, the people reading this are either really sick bastards or you are hating Mark as much as I want you to. I hope it is the last one. I am sorry to tell you that Mark will not be dying anytime soon. He is important to the story, and besides I have a far more horrible punishment for him. There are things that are worse than death and believe me, I have walked him right into one of them. The rape will continue in this one, but I will finish it in this one and then we can move past this nastiness. Thank you all for continuing to grow as a group of subscribers, and for sending me reviews. I am so glad you all hate Mark so much. It is actually rather impressive. But, enough rambling! I have images of you all foaming at the mouth for this next chapter, or more accurately, the chapter afterwards. It is probably not accurate (at least I hope) but I will move on anyway.

Annabeth's POV:

I began to try going along with it, wagging my ass and shaking my hips and he laughed. "Oh Annabeth," he said, "Do you really think I would fall for that? I can see it in your eyes! You are looking at the knife. You were expecting me to let you go because I thought you were playing along! When I let you go, You would have gone for the knife and tried to kill me. Just how dumb do you think I am?"

My eyes widened at how fast he had figured out my plan. He laughed again and lined up behind me, then stopped. "No, I want to see your face for this. I want to see your face as a take you for your very… first… time!" he said snapping his fingers again. This made the vines flip me over onto my back. The vines then flipped held my legs high in the air. He then positioned himself so that he was perfectly lined up to my untouched pussy. I began to thrash, or at least try to, again, tears streaming down my face as his dick began to enter me. I was still dry, and now this was the most painful thing I had ever felt. Finally, after about a minute of pure agony, he reached my hymen. He then pulled back out and slammed in, smashing through it in one blow. I screamed aloud, louder than I had ever screamed before. It felt like he was ripping me in half and he began to ram in and out without letting me adjust to this new intruder. Every time he went in, I screamed again.

Then, to my horror, my body began to betray my mind, making me become wet and moan. "No! NO!" my head was saying, but my body thought that this felt good, to my horror. He began to speed up, untill he finally came… INSIDE OF ME! After that he pulled out, laughing. I just cried and cried, reality finally crashing in: There was nothing I could do. I was truly helpless. For the first time in my life, I could not see a way out.

While I was crying, he flipped me over and positioned me in a position on my hands and knees. He then lined himself up laughing, "How fitting" he said, "That the daughter of a Greek god's last spec of virginity is in her ass! Now you really get to go Greek!" Realizing what he was talking about, I fought harder than ever trying to break free. Try as I may, I was unable to free myself. All of a sudden I felt him pushing on my tight asshole. I tightened my ass as hard as possible, and to my satisfaction, he could not push it in. He suddenly dead legged me, making me lose my focus, allowing him to ram fully inside with push. I had thought that I could not have felt more pain, but I was wrong. A new scream tore from my mouth, as he just kept on ramming in and out. Finally, he came in my ass. This load was larger than the rest and he filled my ass and lower intestines, then pulled out and shot it all over the back of my head. Before any of the cum came out of my ass, a massive cock plant sprouted ind detached itself in my ass, preventing anything from coming out. I just laid there and cried. What else could I do? I was going to be stuck here forever. This was going to be my life if I could not escape, and he had thought of everything all of a sudden cracks began to appear in the walls and roof. There was an explosion, and a figure crashed through the wall.

"TAKE… YOUR… FUCKING… HANDS…OFF… HER"

(about an hour earlier, right after Percy left the palace

Percy's POV:

My ring was going crazy as I headed toward the beach, becoming more and more worried as I drew closer. Finally, I reached the beach. I shot out of the water and slammed down so hard that I made a large crater where I landed. I then ran towards camp, expecting us to be under attack. When I got there, the only thing out of the ordinary was that the wedding was being set up. I went straight to Chiron to ask him if he knew where Annabeth was.

"I thought she was going to Aphrodite's cabin to get ready for the wedding." Chiron said. "She is in danger." I said. "I don't know what kind of danger, or how she is in danger but my ring that Hephaestus told me would alert me if she was in danger, just went off. We need to find her NOW." As Chiron was calling the campers together to look for her, I ran off towards the Aphrodite cabin to see if she knew what had happened.

When I got there, Aphrodite looked troubled, DEEPLY, troubled. I ran over to her and explained what was happening, and she looked even more horrified. "Percy, you are not going to like this, but I know what has happened to Annabeth."

"WHAT! THEN WHY AREN'T YOU DOING ANYTHING" I exploded. She calmly answered back, "Because I only know what is happening to her right now. I do not know where she is, and I certainly do not know how she got there" Struggling to calm myself, I said, "It is at least a start. What is happening to her?"

Looking more nervous by the second, she answered back fearfully, "She is being raped by Mark Debersius." At first, what she said did not register in my head. As I slowly realized what she was saying, I felt myself begin to tremble with rage. Seeing this, Aphrodite continued quickly, "About 20 minutes ago, I felt sex taking place within the camp boundaries. As you know, I am present at any form of lovemaking, so I saw them in a cave. Annabeth was tied up and protesting and fighting as best as she could, but I was there as he took her virginity in her mouth. Whatever the bindings are, they are strong. When I tried to find the cave, I was… ERK…" she was cut off when she made a strange sound. I did not think it was possible, but she looked even more scared. "Oh no," she whispered. "What" I said. "M- m- Mark j- just took her v- v- virginity. Quickly, you must find her. I cannot help you, the cave is shielded from my Godly senses. You must find her before he can do anymore damage" She said, before warping away to tell the other Gods and Goddesses what was happening.

The only thing stopping me from exploding right then and there was the thought that every second I was standing here was another second Annabeth was in the hands of that filthy bastard. I ran into the woods. As I ran through the woods I thought about how I had first met Mark.

(Flashback)

When Mark had first arrived at camp, luck would have it that I was the one to be on border patrol for new campers. He was being chased by my good friend the Minotaur. I began to smile as I thought about killing him yet again. I drew Riptide and ran down the hill, telling the new camper to run to the top and I would cover him. I then walked up to the Minotaur and smiled leaning on my sword. "OY BEEFCAKES!" I called, "Your back again! I missed you good buddy! Are you ready to take another shot at the title? I know it has to be at least 5 times I have killed you by now, what makes you think this will be any different?" He just looked angrier and charged. I decided to go old school on him and do a sweep single on his right leg to put him on his face. Then I jumped on his back and decapitated him.

I capped Riptide and walked to the top of the hill. The kid said, "Why did you do that? I could have handled him!" I looked at him, and said, "Ok next time I will sit at the top of the hill and yell down YOU GOT HIM as you were gutted like a fish" After that I forgot about it. A few days later, I heard him bragging that he had defeated the Minotaur single handly. Nobody believed him. Stuff like this had been happening since he got here and everybody kind of realized that he was the only asshole Demeter had ever given birth to.

Flashback over

By using the water in the air to detect the cave I made my way over there as fast as possible. When I got there I was so angry the ground was shaking. I looked over and saw the creek about a hundred yards away I summoned all the water in the creek and began bashing the cave's roof and entrance. "GET OUT HERE MARK AND I MIGHT NOT KILL YOUR FUCKING RAPIST ASS." I yelled as I bashed. Finally the wall broke and I ran in, a glowing blue-green aura around me. When I looked in I took in everything in a single second.

Mark standing next to her naked

Her clothes cut apart on the floor

Her nearly naked body with only a bra and thong on

Her cum covered head

Her ass filled with a massive plant

Her held to the bed by vines

All of my rage boiled over, and I roared "TAKE… YOUR… FUCKING… HANDS…OFF… HER"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ah there is nothing like a suspenseful ending to ensure readers. I am a cruel person. First, there was a wrestling move I mentioned if anyone wants to look it up it was a sweep single shot, look it up on Youtube if you want to know what it is. I am enjoying this greatly, and I am especially happy with how this turned out. Thank you all for reading, and I have many ideas that I come up with all the time. Have you ever noticed that you come up with some of your best ideas while you are taking a crap or taking a shower? Sorry, ADHD moment. Anyway, Mark will not be dying anytime soon. How could I kill off someone that I have spent so much time making you hate more than anything. That, my friends, is bad for business. I have some ideas and something new to horrify you all will happen in the next chapter. Keep the reviews coming some of them amuse me some scare me but it is always fun to read them. See you in the next chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello once again audience! Thank you so much for continuing reading, and I am so glad that my plan succeeded; you all hate Mark more than anything else! Mission success, Yay me. Unfortunately it does not end there. There will be more sadness by the end of this chapter, but by the end of this chapter, I will have made your hatred of Mark so great, your heads will explode at how evil I am. Honestly, I am wondering how in the hell I made a character so evil. There are two things that you people need to decide though before I write the next chapter though 1) should I make the anti Chaos, Order. His name would not be order because that to me just seems stupid, but I will come up with a far cooler name. I can write it either way but I can give Percy some pretty sweet powers if you choose to have me make an Order thingy, but if you don't want me to It will be just as cool, it can go either way very easily. 2) the second choice you people have is that I had an idea that it might be cool to bring the Kane chronicles in. I KNOW it is not labeled as a crossover story, but I did not want to put it there, because not as many people read those, and they all seem to me to be pure smut. If I do the crossover, it will not be pure smut. I think I can have it so that it is very easily combined together to have a great story, but that was a new thought. My original plan does not have the Kanes in it, but I can very easily modify it so it does or I can leave it be. For the love of god, send me a PM or review if you have a vote. Don't just read this and assume someone else will do it. I want your opinion. If you don't answer, I will just decide on my own, but if I have your opinion it will be so much better. NOW enough of that, I will now begin my chapter. This will be our first fight scene, and I will tell you now. I will go into a TON of detail, and what takes you a minute to read may be only a few seconds in the fight (Exaggeration, I know, but it will be detailed) My goal is to make it like you are watching the fight in person, so enough of my ramblings! Let us begin.**

Mark's Pov

When the wall caved in, I was rather surprised. The cave was supposed to be impregnable. Percy must be a lot more powerful than Chaos originally thought, but it doesn't matter. This pussy can't beat me! I am the most powerful demigod alive!

"Well, well, well, Percy! It appears you have found me! I don't know how you did it but do you like the decor?" I said, gesturing towards the cum soaked Annabitch. I turned to the vines and said "Keep her busy while I deal with this pussy. I want her nice and loose for me when I am done with this." The vines lifted her up and began to screw her every hole, as tears began streaming down her face. I allowed myself a small smile, knowing that the plants had a special surprise that I had engineered them to do. The would randomly cum in massive amounts, but they would not let anything past them because if they decided to pull out to cum on her body, they would detach a small piece of themselves to hold all that was in her inside, then when they went back in they would reattach. They would also grow every time they came. My special treat. HaHa. I then turned back to Percy, and what I saw scared me a bit.

He had a glowing blue-green aura around him, and his eyes were as dark as the ocean on its worst day. Riptide, his dinky little sword was out and it was surrounded by a strange blue fire. When I looked closer, I realized it was actually water. It didn't matter, he cannot beat me, for I am the favored demigod of Chaos.

Percy's POV:

I am pissed off right about now. I can feel the earth shaking, and the water in the air around me. "SO! You think that you can rape my wife to be, to take her virginity in every one of her untouched areas, and seed her with your VILE CUM, and you think I will let you live? You my friend, have made an enemy of me and that is a very BIG mistake for you to add to your long list of mistakes you have made today." I said in a deathly calm voice, the kind of voice that is beyond yelling, the speaker is so angry that they are no longer yelling but they are in a calm demeanor, but somehow, it scares you so much more.

"Yeah and what are you going to do about it? Who are you that thinks that he can stop me?" the little prick asked arrogantly. I decided that I was going to scare him a bit, by doing something that I had never done before because it seemed to prideful, but right about now, it seemed perfect. I began to announce my titles.

"I am Perseus Jackson, Slayer of the Nemean Lion, Slayer of the Minotaur, and Slayer of Medusa. I have tricked Atlas into taking the sky upon himself once more, I have defeated Kronos himself, and I have defeated Hyperion. I have slayed the Giants Polybotes, Alcyoneus, and the twin Giants, Otis and Ephialtes. I have defeated Gaia. I have been to great Pit, Tartarus, and returned unscathed. I am a Praetor of the Romans, Hero of Olympus, and Son of Poseidon. I have born the Curse of Achilles.

I am going to Crush you like a gnat, then drag your sorry ass out of the underworld so that I can destroy you again. I swear, on the River Styx, that I will kill you and see your soul cast into the Pit." There was a crack of thunder sealing my Oath. Mark looked scared at first then regained his arrogant face. He drew a sword that was an average looking sword. His stance suggested that he knew what he was doing, but lacked experience. It made sense, because he had only been here for two or three months.

I charged, opening my shield that Tyson had made for me. When our swords met, I immediately knew that he was out matched, and yet he still had an arrogant smile on his face. I decided that he was going to lose the smile soon. He took a wild slash and I deflected with my shield as I ducked under his guard and hilt slammed his left knee. I heard it snap with a satisfying crack, and listened to his cry of pain with a grim look on my face. Somehow, he was still standing. Now, he was on guard. Good, now he is scared. Now I used a john smith low single on his left leg to put him on his back. Now, I took his sword away from him with a simple flick of my wrist that sent his sword spinning and sticking out of a tree to the hilt. I then used my shield to smash his right knee. He would not be walking for a long time even if he survived. I then dropped my sword and shield. I would finish this bastard with my bare hands.

I took his right arm and broke his wrist then his forearm then his upper arm. By now he was screaming his head off, begging for mercy, and yelling for someone named Chaos to help him. I then repeated the process to his left arm. If he survived, he would never use them again. I then ripped off both of his arms by twisting them out of their sockets, and shoved them both up his ass. I thought that was particularly fitting. Finally I saved the best for last. I grabbed him by the dick and with one motion I ripped it off. He was a jibbering wreck by now and I decided I had had enough of his talking. I rammed his own dick down his throat.

Now I remembered what was happening to Annabeth. She was still being raped by the plants! I ran to her, and began to try and get her down. "It won't work, loser." I heard from behind me. Mark had somehow managed to spit his dick out and had a psychotic smile on his face. "I created those plants for one reason alone. They will fuck her till I tell them to stop, Or she explodes from the sheer amount of cum in her. They cannot be cut or destroyed in any way. You lose. My Master Chaos is on his way. Then you will be sorry." I turned and threw my sword, hitting him square between the eyes. At last some quiet.

I began to try and pull the plants from Annabeth. As soon as I touched them they began to push even further in. I quickly stopped touching them. She was crying obviously in a lot of pain. She was beginning to look bloated from all the cum. I had to hurry.

Annabeth's POV:

When Percy completely and utterly destroyed Mark with such systematic, single minded ferocity, I was honestly a little scared. During the fight though, I was in so much pain that it really did not matter. The plants were plowing me so hard that I could not think straight, and every time they came, they grew bigger. If they did not come out of me soon, they were going to rip me in half! And the amount they came was amazing! It was like having a fire hose straight down my pussy and asshole, and it hurt. Nothing was coming out and this was leading to a lot of pain. I looked slightly pregnant and I was having horrible cramps from the cum enema I was receiving. Then they started pulling out half way through their ejaculations to cover me completely with cum. By the time Percy was finished I was out of my mind with pain. Through the pain though, and I can not deny it, though I felt so ashamed of this, I began to feel pleasure. My screams began to be mixed with moans of pleasure. I felt like such a whore. Maybe Mark was right, maybe I am a whore, a slut, a wanton. I began to have the first orgasm of my life, and it was on a plant. Oh the shame I felt. When he tried to pull it out, they all shoved in farther. The one in my vagina began to coil in my womb and move around in there, while the one in my ass began pumping into my small intestine, thus bringing a whole new wave of pain. The one in my throat began forcing its way down my throat, causing me to puke, but I was unable to send it past the cock plant so it just stayed inside. I could do nothing

Percy's POV:

As I was trying to come up with a way to free Annabeth, I heard a large crack of thunder, and I felt the earth shake. I turned around, and there was a man in dark robes that looked like a night sky standing over Mark. Mark suddenly got up, completely healed. The man in the robe handed him a sword that was so dark it looked like a black hole had appeared in the shape of a sword. He then shot Mark with a ray that looked as black as the sword, and then he stepped back. Mark yelled out, "COME ON OUT PUSSY JACKSON, AND FACE YOUR DEATH LIKE A MAN" I drew my sword again, and walked outside. This time, he took the first swing, and he was a lot stronger now. I became worried. This time, I think that I am the out matched one, and that is not a good thing. we traded blows for a bit, but suddenly he disarmed me. No one has ever disarmed me! He snapped his fingers, and vines shot out of the ground and grabbed my wrists and ankles, thus binding me to the ground

As I was struggling, he walked over to my sword. He picked it up, and looked at it for a moment. He laughed, saying, "What a pitiful blade. How was I ever beaten with this piece of shit?" He then put it on the ground, and raised his sword. Realizing what he was about to do, I strained at my bindings SWISSHH CRACK! That crack was like a bullet to my heart. He had just destroyed my sword in a single blow. I felt a deep sense of loss; this was the sword that had been with me since the beginning. He then gave his sword to the robed man. The robed man now spoke in a quiet voice "So, this is the great Perseus Jackson. You beat up my champion. I never liked you to begin with, but come on! That was not very smart. You have ruined my plans for the last time, so now I have to destroy you. But first, I think I am going to break your spirit. I am going to take everything that means anything to you." He said. Then he snapped his fingers and my mom and Paul appeared. "They will go first, young Perseus." The sword descended, and I yelled "NO!" and heads rolled. I began to cry. Then he walked over to Annabeth. The love of my life was about to die and I was lying on the ground. I began to summon my power. I would not let her die. The robed man turned and said "AH ah ah. We shant have any of that now." and snapped his fingers, all of a sudden my powers were not working. He raised the sword and said, "By this stroke, I break you Perseus! Never again will you get in my way." With that the sword came down and went straight through her. "NOOOOO" the scream tore from my throat. "I swear by the Five Rivers of the Underworld, I will have my revenge on you. There will be know where you can hide from me. I will always find you eventually. THIS I SWEAR."

"That is going to be a bit hard where you are going." The robed man said, casting his hands wide. He began to say in a booming voice, "I, Lord Chaos, cast Perseus Jackson into the Pit. No Gods may help him. May he NEVER RETURN AGAIN! The Pit claims you, Perseus Jackson, and will keep you trapped till the end of time. So I say, so it SHALL BE"

"I will get out. I have done it before and I will do it again. You will never be able to hide from me. Even now you try to trap me, because you are to scared of me to kill me. I will return and I will hunt you both down. You will never be free of my wrath! I SWEAR IT!" I said with venom in my voice. Chaos clapped his hands, and a pit appeared beneath me. I fell, dragged down by the vines straight to Tartarus.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well that is a sad ending. STORY OVER! No I am just kidding! Would I be that cruel? No I would have to build a bunker to survive all of you. I will be continuing this for a long while, don't you people worry. And so the plot thickens! I will thank you all for your devotion to my story, and I hope you all continue to read it. I really hope that a lot of you will vote for the things I listed at the beginning. I really hope you will vote, but if you don't I will make the decisions. It does not matter. The choices I offered were as followed:**

**1) should I make the anti Chaos, Order. His name would not be order because that to me just seems stupid, but I will come up with a far cooler name. I can write it either way but I can give Percy some pretty sweet powers if you choose to have me make an Order thingy, but if you don't want me to It will be just as cool, it can go either way very easily.**

**2) the second choice you people have is that I had an idea that it might be cool to bring the Kane chronicles in. I KNOW it is not labeled as a crossover story, but I did not want to put it there, because not as many people read those, and they all seem to me to be pure smut. If I do the crossover, it will not be pure smut. I think I can have it so that it is very easily combined together to have a great story, but that was a new thought. My original plan does not have the Kanes in it, but I can very easily modify it so it does or I can leave it be.**

**Adios my faithful readers!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello again my faithful readers! I thank you for your reviews, although some of them are… ahem, disturbing. First of all, Percy will indeed be meeting the anti-Chaos, thanks to popular vote, but I will not be bringing the Kanes in. I was actually rather disappointed at that, but, as Jumpman pointed out, not everyone that has red the Percy Jackson series has read the Kane Chronicles, so I cannot put them in UNLESS of course, you all really want to. The next thing is that now that Annabeth is dead, and quite a horrific ending I might add, or should I say pre ending, we can finally begin the Petermis part of the story. Unfortunately, that will not be happening for a while. I will be focusing mainly on Percy while he is in the Pit, but we are going to start this chapter with Olympus finding out. All that has changed since the last chapter is a few minutes, in which the Campers find Annabeth's dead body. so without further ado, LET US BEGIN THIS FINE ADVENTURE!**

Chiron's POV:

When the campers and I found the remains of the battle, we were shocked to say the least. I immediately ordered the elder campers to get the young ones away, but some of them had already seen it. They began crying, because they all knew Annabeth, and this was just too much for their little hearts. "Quickly! We must get back to the camp. Senior campers! Get everyone in their cabins! There is something afoot, and we must tell the Olympians." I ordered. The senior campers, still in a state of shock, began herding everyone back to camp. I took off at a gallop towards the beach, where the Olympians were preparing for the wedding.

"Chiron! What has your tail so tied up in knots on this wonderful day? Do you know where Percy is? He should be here! We are all ready? Is Aphrodite done with Annabeth yet?" Zeus asked as he saw me come galloping out of the woods. "You all had better come with me. There is a situation. I cannot describe what has happened, for I am not entirely sure what has happened myself." I said with a grave face. Then, ignoring their protests, I lead them into the woods.

Once I reached the scene, I waited for them. It did not take long for them to get there. Zeus let out a gasp, and Demeter and Persephone both turned and threw up. Ares stood there, rather uncomfortably, because he was used to this sort of thing, but knew that the others were not. Athena ran to her daughter and cried. Artemis began to look for clues as to what had happened. Poseidon, he walked to Sally's dead body, and just looked like the saddest man alive, with tears running down his face as his shoulders shook.

"Where is Percy? Does he not yet know of this tragedy?" Poseidon asked. I do not know, but we must find him. We must be careful though, because we all know of his power. Hephaestus spoke up at this time, "He was already here and he already knew of this tragedy. His sword lies broken over there next to the tree, I felt the Celestial bronze when we got here. he knew of this tragedy, because Annabeth wears the ring I made for them."

Next Hades spoke up, "I have a pretty good guess as to where Percy is. He has been cast into Tartarus. There is a recently sealed rift here in the ground." At that moment, Poseidon stood up. His hands gripped his trident tightly. He then slammed his trident into the ground, yelling with tears streaming down his face. The ground shook and the skies stormed and on the Beach, the waves grew to tidal waves as he cried.

"Quickly! We must get Percy out of Tartarus! Only he may be able to stop his father from ending the world as we know it!" I said as the ground, skies, and oceans all mourned with their master. All the Olympians began to glow as they prepared to pull Percy out of Tartarus. All of a sudden, there was an explosion, and the Olympians went flying back. In the middle of the circle where they had been standing was a man in starry robes. He began to laugh.

"FOOLISH GODS! Do you really think you can pull your champion out of the Pit when I, Lord Chaos, sent him there? He will die in the Pit, and I will see you cast down! I do not like your rule, and so I will destroy you all with Shadosema!" He clapped his hands, and disappeared into a vortex.

The Gods stood up slowly, completely shocked. Finally, Zeus spoke, "Percy is on his own. We can do nothing for him. OLYMPIANS! WE PREPARE FOR WAR NOW! Athena, you must do everything you can. You must figure out who the Shadosema are." Athena nodded. "Apollo do you have a Prophesy that will tell us when this threat will come to be?"

Apollo stood, his face for once, was completely serious. "I do have one. I first spoke it long ago, and I have never known what it meant.

THE LORD OF ALL SHALL TURN

THE HERO CAST TO THE PIT

THIS SHALL MARK THE FINAL BATTLE'S APPROACH

ONE SCORE FROM THEN, YOUR FATE DECIDED

WITHOUT YOUR HERO'S RETURN

ALL WILL FALL

ON THAT DAY

ONE SHALL STAND

ONE SHALL FALL

Percy's POV

I fell for a long time. Finally, I stopped falling. I hit the ground, and immediately fell unconscious. When I woke up, the past events suddenly caught up with me. I began to cry, my entire body wracked with my sobs. I had nothing left. My father could not help me. My mother, my stepfather, both dead. And Annabeth… Oh Annabeth. She was my one purpose for living, and she was dead. Not only that, but I had been RIGHT THERE when it happened, and I was unable to help her. She was violently raped, and I had not been able to do anything. THAT BASTARD HAD DEFILED HER, AND I HAD NOT EVEN MADE SURE THAT HE WAS DEAD! I could not bear it. She was being raped even as she died, and I was right there! I did not even have my sword anymore. There was no sword that was ever an equal in my hands. I did not want to go on. There was nothing left.

Except one thing.

Mark is still out there. Chaos is still out there. "You have beaten me, you have cast me away. You have broken my spirit, and broken my sword. There is one mistake you have made: I am still alive. I will hunt them till the end of the earth there is no place you can hid from me Chaos DO YOU HEAR ME!" I swore.

Finally, I had a reason to live again. I stood up. I began to take inventory. I still had my shield, and apparently, it had the same return enchantment that Riptide had. Well, used to have. It also had a repairing charm on it, because it was completely fixed. Well that is something. I needed a weapon though, or I would not survive long. I began to walk. The only way I knew of to get out of Tartarus is to use the Doors of Death. They move around all the time, so I would wander until I found them. The only problem is that I need the blood of a titan or God to get out, along with my own demigod blood. Oh well, I can figure that out when I get there. Eventually, I came upon an ancient oak. What it was doing here, I have no idea, but Tartarus is a strange place. Perhaps one of the Gods had gotten mad at it and sent it here, or Tartarus put it there for his own obscure reason. Whatever the reason was, I had found a weapon.

I walked up to the tree, and asked it if I could have one of its limbs to defend myself with. When it did not respond, I was relieved. It is always better to ask before taking, because it could have been a nymph and they don't take too kindly to strangers taking their branches. I began to climb the tree. When I was about have way up, I found the perfect branch. It was about an inch and a half thick, and about a foot taller than me at 7 feet long. I used the semi-sharp edge of my shield to cut it off. Once I was done, I climbed down and set off again with my new staff.

I thought about my new staff. It would not last very long, unless I could find someone to enchant it. I would definitely need to find a sword, or something like that. After about an hour of walking, I came across a river. It had a bunch of stuff floating around in it. I recognized it as the River Styx. I considered taking another dip, but seeing as I did not have anybody to tie me to the mortal world, it would not work. So, I began to walk off.

_"Waaaaiiiiittt"_ said a quiet, whispery voice. I immediately turned around, readying my staff as I turned. "Who is it? What do you want?" I called out into the darkness, keeping my head on a swivel, looking for the source of the voice._ "I am the spirit of the River Styx, and I have seen your plight. I saw what happened when you invoked my name to swear your revenge, and I wish to help you."_ the whispery voice answered. "Ok… um, hello then Ms. ah Styx. You probably remember me, as I was one of the people that have bathed in your waters. I never knew that there was a spirit in the River Styx. It makes sense though, I just never thought about it. But how can you help me. I have no one to tie me to the mortal world. I would dissolve. _"I know this. But you do have a staff of oak. This can break all too easily. If you dip it in my river. I will give it my blessing so it will never break. All I ask is that while you may get another weapon, promise me you will use it every now and then. Give it a good, strong name, and make its name known. Will you promise me this, young Perseus?"_ the Styx said to me. I said to her, "I will do this for you, and I will do my best to make its name known throughout the world of demigods, gods, and monsters. I accept your terms._ "ahahaha! Thank you Perseus. I have never been known for anything but my blessing with its catch, and something to make an oath on. Now, I will be known for being a part of the greatest hero this world has ever known's staff. May that staff never lead you the wrong way, and may your days be long with it by your side. Drop it in, and once the blessing is given I shall give it back."_ the Styx said. I did as she asked, and in a few seconds the staff rose from the river._ "One more thing,"_ she said _"I have given your staff the ability to teach you to use the staff. I know that you are a swordsman, and so you are not comfortable with a staff, so you must learn to use one. The staff will not fight for you, but if you are practicing, it will show you different moves you can use with a staff. This is my gift to you."_ I stood and said, "Thank you Styx, and I shall do as you ask. I shall call it…."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: ANNNND that is the end of chapter 6. I do not have a name for it yet which means, you guessed it, you get to choose! Yes, I want my readers to choose the name of Percy's new staff! He will be getting a new weapon, and I already have this weapon picked out, but he needed another weapon to get it. The requirements for the naming contest are as follows: 1) It may NOT be more than 3 words long. I would really rather 1 word, or really no more than 2 but 3 is the MAXIMUM. 2) It must be translated to Greek, English, and Latin if it is manageable. That way, it can be known in the Roman camp and the Greek camp. 3) It must be imaginative. I do not really intend to have anybody else getting a staff, so it can't be anything like The staff of courage or something like that, because then people wonder, "What happened to the staff of power, or knowledge" I don't want to have that in this (Hmm That would make a good story… Another one by me perhaps? I'll think on it.) 4) Above all, it must be catchy and cool. My brother and beta will be helping me to choose which one we like the most and that shall be the one that we use. We will give credit to the person who we choose.**

**Now that that is out of the way, I have some other stuff to tell you all. First, sorry that nothing particularly exciting happened this chapter. I had originally planned on going a lot farther in this chapter, but the discovery screwed me up a bit and the whole staff idea completely came out of nowhere. I did not plan on him getting a staff but the idea came to me, almost like a punch to the face, like ****_YOU WILL DO THIS_**** and so I did and it turned out well. Second, I need to know if you like how this is going. I can go back and have Chaos not destroy riptide, but I really don't want to do that. 1) that would mean I have to rewrite this whole chapter and 2) I really like where this is going right now. I have a major surprise for all of you in the next chapter, but my brother is telling me that by destroying riptide, I am messing up a major part of the Percy Jackson idea and I am straying too far from the real Percy Jackson for any of you to enjoy it. I kind of like the current reworking of Percy, but at the core, he is still the same. Third, sorry about the shitty prophecy. If anyone wants to come up with a better one you are welcome to, but it has to deliver the same message, and has to keep the last 2 lines. Yes, I do realize I stole it from transformers. I do not hold any rights to it, Transformers came up with it but it is such a badass 2 lines that I had to put it in, and I am keeping it in here, so anybody that makes a new prophecy must have those 2 lines in there. Thank you all for reading and here ends this ridiculously long author's note and chapter 6. See you next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok so between my ADHD and my excitement for the next chapter, I cannot stand waiting for more suggestions. I had 3 different suggestions that were given, and there was one clear winner. Thank You Jumpman23E for your suggestion of, well we will get to that. It is no fun for me to tell you in the author's notes, now is it? This chapter is the one that I have been EXTREMELY eager for, so I can't wait to hear your reviews. Sorry about the change in chapter 5, it was small, only one word, but it was important that I change it. The reason I changed it was because as I was doing my research for this chapter, I discovered that the belief that there are 7 rivers of the underworld that so many other Fanfiction writers believe is completely false. There are only 5, so I had to change it in chapter 5 where Percy swears on the 7 rivers of the underworld to the 5 rivers of the underworld. I also would still like a new prophecy for this. It has to keep the same general idea, and the last 2 lines from transformers, but other than that, it is your choice. Speaking of the movie quote, I will be throwing more in there, simply because I love movies, and the quotes are always great. In other news, I have 2 weeks left in Cross Country, and after that is over, I will be able to post more often. I do have to give some credit to another story for this idea, but A) I will be going from a very different angle in this so it is ok. I think you all will like what I do here. B) I will tell you which story and author I have to give credit to. If you have read the story, you will probably recognize it. I own nothing but this story, but not the characters in this story. Technically, Rick can't lay claim to some of them, because after all, Greek and Roman mythology lays claim to that, but enough of that ADHD tangent. Shall we be going then?**

Percy's POV:

I stood and said, "Thank you Styx, and I shall do as you ask. I shall call it Oathkeeper, in Greek, fýlakas órko, and in Latin, iusiurandum custos. I name it this because it is blessed by the river by which the most serious of oaths are taken." The spirit of the Styx answered back "ahhh… this name pleases me young Perseus. May your staff bear this name well. Dip it in again so that I may engrave the name upon it." I did so, and when she returned it to me, she had engraved it's name on it so that it had an engraving on three different places up the staff so that the end result was a staff that looked as though it had been made by a master had designs running the length of it that reminded me of the ocean or the River Styx's current. It was beautiful. "How can I ever repay you, Mrs Styx?" I asked, shocked to be trusted with such a beautiful weapon. "hahahaha…. You are already repaying me by bearing that staff, young warrior. Do as I have asked, and that will be payment enough for me. Now, before you go, I must tell you some things to guide you on your journey. This time down here, your escape will not be as easy because of Chaos' pseudo curse. Because he was too impatient and never actually finalized the curse of staying in Tartarus, you are able to get out. However, he did succeed in making it extremely hard for you to get out. To get out, you will face many challenges. I do not know what they are, but I can tell you that you must visit my four sisters. Each of them will help you, but you must prove yourself worthy of their help, hence the challenges. My sisters will not make the challenges, but if you complete the challenges you come upon, my sisters will see you and if they are impressed, they will help. You need help from all of them to escape. My last piece of advice is more of a warning. When you leave Tartarus, only a week will have passed. In that week, your Father will have nearly destroyed the world with his grief over the death of your mother, Sally, and the loss of you. Only you can stop him from destroying the world in his grief with your return. You may not tell him outright though, for he will suspect a trick from his brothers to keep him from destroying the world. You must prove to him that you are his son. I don't pretend to know how you can do this, but you must, or all of this will be for nought. This is all I can tell you, but my sisters may know more. Good bye, young hero, and do not let your revenge…." She said as she faded away.

"Do not let my revenge what? fail? Thank you anyway for your advice, Mrs. Styx." I said before walking off.

Because Tartarus changes with every moment, all I could do was just continue walking until I found something or someone. I walked for hours before I finally found something. I found a large crater with a man lying in the middle of it. I knew that it was probably a bad idea and a trap, but for some reason, I felt a connection with the man. I went into the crater to see if he needed some help. When he rolled over, I saw his face covered in scars with his eyes closed. He seemed to be hurt. I decided I was going to help him; maybe he would be a good ally.

I found some wood, and nearby was a bush and some trees. There was some kind of berries on the bush, and the tree seemed to be an apple tree. I got all the food I could, thinking that, while Tartarus does not allow you to become hungry, food would help to heal him. I then started a fire to keep warm and keep this mysterious man warm as well. After that, I began to practice with my staff.

The spirit of the Styx had told me that the staff would teach me the basics, and teach me it did. I do not know how it taught me, but after an amount of time had passed, (time is hard to measure in Tartarus, seeing as there is no sun and I had no watch) I knew how to use this new weapon effectively. After this, I lied down and went to sleep.

When I awoke, the man was still there, deep in his sleep. I got up, and began to practice again. After a short amount of time, the man began stirring, before he woke with a start. "AH!" He woke up yelling in surprise. Then, I saw his eyes. They were a deep gold. Oh shit… There is only one being that has eyes like that and that is… "Kronus" I growled readying my staff for the battle that was about to come. I should have known! Those scars should have been a dead give away!

Kronus POV:

"Wow that was a beat down I just got. Where am I? Who lit this fire?" I thought as I got up searching for my rescuer so that I might thank him. As I awakening, I heard a familiar voice growl my name "Kronus." I know that voice! That was… "Perseus Jackson. Long time no see." I growled, drawing my scythe out of a temporal rift, preparing for a fight.

Percy's POV:

I could not believe that I had somehow found one of my most powerful foes from my past at the weakest moment in my life. This is just fucking perfect. I readied my staff, now armed with my new skills, and charged him.

He made the first strike, a powerful downward blow that, had it connected, would have cleaved me in two. Thankfully, I blocked that blow with my staff. It took the blow without even bending or cracking, which meant that the blessing worked. I then retaliated, holding the staff in the middle, attacking from both sides with the opposite end of the staff. He still managed to block every blow with that cursed scythe of his.

Now, I was put on the defense by Kronus when he went on a vicious offense swinging left and right with his scythe, forcing me to begin a figure eight motion with Oathkeeper. It looked similar to a kayaker rowing themselves along in their kayak. This went on for a few blows before he overextended himself. Seeing an opening, I kicked him in the chest with yell, "HAAA"

He then slid back 15 or so meters (or yards whatever you prefer I use them interchangeably, they are close to the same length anyway I do realize they are different though) before he slammed the end of his scythe down into the ground, stopping him from going any farther. Seeing my chance, I ran in and took a double handed blow downwards while holding the end of the staff so that it worked kind of like a massive club. Kronus only just managed to block the blow, but he was now getting tired. That is the one advantage to Tartarus; except for powers, everyone is on even grounds. Kronus, though he does have his powers, is essentially mortal. I, on the other hand, have been mortal all my life, and it has made me stronger than the average mortal, because I am a demigod, so I spend my life fighting.

Kronus then began his counter attack. He made a vicious downward strike, followed by a powerful slash from the left, then another from the right. I blocked all of these attacks, but then he fooled me, and instead of attacking with the blade, he swung the bottom of the scythe upwards, catching me in the chin sending me flying. I managed to land back on my feet, just as he ran forward to take advantage of the opening in my defenses. I managed to sidestep the blow, then I saw my chance to end this. While he was trying to pull his staff back in so he could defend himself, I swung as hard as I could, shattering the bones in his hand so that he could no longer hold up his scythe. I quickly followed this with a solid blow to the head.

Kronus fell down. I readied my staff to finish him once and for all, but something held me back. I could not just kill him while he was defenseless, and if I killed him here, I think he might be gone for good. Where would something go from the last place it goes?

Kronus began to laugh, "HAHAHAHAHAAA," he laughed in a deep voice. All I could do was stare as I slowly lowered my staff. "Why are you laughing? I just beat you! I can kill you now! Stop laughing, and take your death like a man!" I said, beginning to worry that Kronus had somehow tricked me.

"No, no Percy, I am not laughing because I have a plan, I am laughing at the irony of this whole situation. You have indeed beaten me, and there is nothing I can do about it. The irony is that, at last, I have found the one person worthy of my respect and to be the heir I have long searched for, and it is my greatest foe. There has never been another person that has defeated me in a fair fight, one on one. Even my children, the Gods, had to fight me all together. You did not notice it, but I was using my powers during that entire battle, and yet you still came at me with the same speed. What is it, young Percy, that drives you to fight so hard? I threw all of my power at you, and you were able to fight me as though I was a regular person! What is driving you to fight like no one else?" he asked, drawing himself up to his feet.

"Revenge, Kronus, revenge. I will stop at nothing to have my revenge on the ones who stole Annabeth and my parents from me. I will destroy Mark Debersius, and then, I'm coming for his master, Chaos." I answered, finally putting down the end of my staff into the ground.

"Well, young Percy, that is a sad thing indeed. However, you are the first person to ever earn my respect, and for that I have an offer for you. I wish to help you." Kronus said. For a minute, I just stood there, not really processing what he had just said. Then, I began to laugh. "hahahaha, HAHAHAHAHA. Do you really expect me to believe that, after everything you have put me and the world through? Do you really expect me to just trust you to just because I beat you? You must have, the biggest pair of balls, that this universe has ever seen for you to think that I would believe that!"

"I did not expect you to believe me, but please allow me to explain." Kronus said, bowing his head slightly. Seeing no reason to not listen to him, I nodded my head to signal for him to continue. "I knew that you would never believe that, but I had to try the direct approach. This is why I wish to help you. Sharing a body with Luke has somehow changed me. I do not know how it has changed me, but somehow I know that it is a change for the better. For the first time in my life, I wish to help the world. I wish to do some good. However, I have been evil all my life. I do not know how I can help, and so I have been fighting this feeling ever since Luke sent me back here with his act of suicide. Now, I have a chance. I have someone that can teach me to be good. You are the only person in this world that I have ever met that I can find no faults with. All I ask is for you to let me try and prove this to you by helping you to get out of here so that you can avenge Annabeth and your parents. Once you get out of here, you can decide what you want to do with me. At that point, I will have done at least one good thing, I hope, and perhaps we may form some sort of trust." He said, in a proud, but rather unsure voice.

I sat back, (for I had sat down during his story, as had he) rather shocked. I could not detect any form of deceit in him. I mulled it over. I really had nothing to lose from this, and if it turned out he was lying, I could easily kill him. I nearly had, not long ago. If he was telling the truth though, well then… I did not know what, at that point. I would have an ally in my war against the creator and his pawn, and allies were something that I was sorely in need of. The Gods and Demigods would not be enough to fight the creator, I needed far more powerful allies to win this. Finally, I reached a decision. "Done" I said with finality. "I will accept your offer, Kronus, but I will not make you swear on the Styx to this, because if you are going to earn my trust, it is not going to be because you are forced not to betray me because of an oath. It will because you genuinely want to. If you turn on me, however, I will destroy you without a second thought. There will be no second chances in this." I said looking at him hard, searching for any sign of uncertainty. There was none.

"There is one thing you must know, young Percy, before we continue. The other reason I wish to help you, is because I have been looking for an heir for a long time. This heir will be the bridge between the Titans and the Gods. The other Titans and I, we are tired of this fighting, but we cannot make an alliance with the Gods without an ambassador. I wish for you to be this ambassador, for I know that you will not betray us if I earn your trust. If you accept this, you will become the first half Titan, half God mix. You will no longer be a mortal, but something else. You will keep your powers as a son of Poseidon, but you will also gain the same power over time that I have. I am the king of the Titans, and so it is only right that your Titan side will give you my power. If you accept, I will teach you as we travel, and you may make your final decision before you leave Tartarus. I do not expect you to make it now, but you must know that this is my hope." Kronus said.

I thought about it for a minute. This was a big deal. I still found no hint of deceit in him, and I had nothing to tie me to the mortal world anymore, now that Annabeth, Sally, and Paul were gone. With two words, I sealed my fate "I accept."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: ANNNND that raps up chapter 7! I was EXTREMELY excited about this story, and I have been planning this chapter since the beginning. To be honest this was my inspiration for the whole story, and so I must give credit for the idea of Percy gaining the powers of Kronus to the author of the story ****_Titan of the Hunt_**** by vPxForerunner x. It is an awesome story, and it gave me inspiration for this and if you are reading this THANK YOU! You are awesome. I am sorry for the time it took me to write this, I got wrapped up in a really good book. It is called ****Ready Player One**** if anyone wants to check it out. Thank you all for reading and remember, I would love to see a new Prophecy if anyone wants to come up with it. Rules for writing it are at the beginning of the story. If nobody writes one soon, well, it is just gonna stay that way. Now for a little Yay me moment, I now have a new PR (personal record, for those of you that are non runners, otherwise known as smart people) of 20 minutes, 46 seconds! Yay me! Ok, self congradulatory moment over. Next week is my last meet, unless I get that time under 20 minutes (I doubt it) in which case I am off to counties. But, this means more updates! Yay again! I know what is going to happen in the next chapter, but I love suggestions, and they all help. They either give me ideas or they make me laugh, either one is good, so keep them coming! In the mean time, Bigbro359, signing off till next time! Adios me amigos!**


	8. Chapter 8

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello again audiences! You all have been great to me so far, and I want to thank you all for that. I have not gotten a single flame over this story, and that in and of itself is an accomplishment, so I thank you all for your devotion to my story. I don't really have anything else to announce for this, so without further ado, LET THE ADVENTURE CONTINUE!**

Percy's POV:

Kronus smiled at this, and said, "Thank you, Percy, I have never had anybody that put this level of trust in me before, and I do not intend to squander it. Now, do you wish to leave, or shall we camp here to rest?" I answered back, "We have both slept enough, let us be going."

And so we began walking. And walking. And walking, until we finally came across a river. When we got there, there was a familiar boat floating down it. On the boat, there was a cloaked, skeletal figure, who was pushing the boat along with a long pole. In front of him was about 50 ghosts, and one of them was… "ANNABETH! WAIT STOP CHARON STOP YOUR DAMN BOAT OR I WILL SWIM OUT THERE AFTER YOU!" I yelled, running towards the river. Kronus was behind me yelling "PERCY stop! That boat does not stop! You can not swim after it either! That is the Acheron River, the river of pain! You may follow it, but you cannot see Annabeth until she gets off the boat." I kept running anyway, so he tackled me just before I dove into the River. I got up, glaring at him and told him "FINE. But we will move as fast as we can and I am not stopping for anything. Come on." We began to run along the river, until the boat finally stopped. When Annabeth finally disembarked, she was followed by my mom and Paul. I ran to them and tried to hug them, but I went right through them. I began to cry. It just was not fair, and now they were all right in front of me, about to be judged, and there was nothing I could do. I knew that Hades would make sure that they all went to Elysium, but it did not matter.

_"Percy…. Percy…."_ I heard a ghostly whisper. I looked up, and they were all standing over me. _"Percy, it is ok there was nothing you could have done."_ Annabeth said as my mother and Paul stood behind her and watched. "No it isn't, Annabeth! I just lied there as Chaos killed you all! I should have fought harder, I should have stopped him! I should have never let that bastard Mark touch you, but I did, and now you are all dead! It is all my fault!" I said, still crying. _"Percy, there is nothing you could have done, and you know that! I am dead, yes, but sitting here and crying will do nothing to fix this. You must move on, or you will be destroyed. Your parents and I are ok, and I will personally beat the living shit out of Minos if he even suggests the fields of asphodel for your parents. It will be ok, but you must move on. Do it for me Percy. Please?"_ Annabeth said. She then walked over to me, and gave me a ghostly hug, as my parents did the same. I pulled myself together, and said "Annabeth, I promise I will do my best to move on, but I will visit you in Elysium, I swear it. And if Minos sends you to the Fields of Punishment, or even the Fields of Asphodel, I will come for him, and when he is destroyed forever, I will drag you to Elysium, and nothing will stand in my way to do so!" Then, Annabeth and my parents smiled, and waved goodbye, and they walked to the line. I then turned to Kronus and said, "Lets go. We need to get out of here. We have been here too long and are likely attracting all sorts of… KRONUS LOOK OUT!" I finished with a yell as I readied my staff.

Kronus POV:

While I was watching the sad goodbyes of the two that were more than just lovers, but also best friends, steadfast companions, and an impossible fighting duo, I could not help but feel sorry for the two. They had been through a lot together, and I can only imagine what it must be like for the survivor. Finally, Percy turned around and began to tell me that it is time to go, when he shouted a warning. As I turned around to see what was happening, a massive object collided with me, sending me flying towards the Acheron river. Thinking fast, I drew my scythe from my back, and rammed the tip of it into the ground to the right of me. This would swing me around so that I could stop myself from taking a painful bath in the Acheron. My plan worked a little better than I had planned, and launched me back towards my attacker, allowing me to at last get a good view of it. It was the Minotaur.

Thinking fast, I moved aimed my feet at him so that I could give him a nice kick to the face. That was the plan anyway, but the Minotaur had other plans. He grabbed my foot and slammed me into the ground, causing several of my bones to break. "Shit…" I gasped as my vision faded.

Percy's POV:

As Kronus turned to look, the Minotaur nailed him right in the side. "That damn bull never knows when to just stay down, does he?" I thought as I winced at the blow Kronus had just taken. Kronus surprised me though, when he remained calm as he flew towards the Acheron. He drew his scythe, and planted the tip into the ground, causing his inertia to launch him back towards the Minotaur. It was excellent thinking on his part, and when he finished the maneuver by aiming himself towards the Minotaur to give him a nice solid kick to the face, I couldn't help but watch with admiration. Admiration became horror though, when the Minotaur caught his foot, and slammed him down into the ground. I heard the bones breaking from here, and it was not a pretty sound. I knew at that moment, that I was going to have to do this myself.

At that point, the Minotaur noticed me. When it caught a whiff of my sea scent, it roared with anger. "Oh goody! Apparently he remembers me!" I thought as my head slipped into battle mode. I yelled out to him as I edged towards Kronus to protect him, "Hey Steak face! Did you miss me? How about this time, you figure it out that you can't touch this, and just GIVE UP? But I guess you are too stupid for that, so I am just gonna have to kick your ass AGAIN. So come on then! Give me your best shot!" Finally, I had moved myself between Kronus and the Minotaur. The Minotaur bellowed in rage, and began his charge.

I then realized that I had made a mistake. I could not dodge out of the way, because Kronus was behind me and would be trampled. My only choice was to plant my staff in front of me and hope to the Gods that I could hold it there. I then acted on that plan, and slammed my staff a foot into the soil, and stood my ground. I then braced myself for impact. When the Minotaur hit, I, by some miracle, stood my ground. Oathkeeper, of course, was fine thanks to the Styx's blessing. When the Minotaur got up off his ass from where his impact had thrown him, he looked rather stunned that his charge had not worked. I then lifted Oathkeeper from the ground and readied for his next attack. I knew from experience that after he had tried a charge, if that failed, he would then go to using his axe. He followed the same pattern this time, and drew his axe.

The Minotaur then charged at me, his axe over his shoulder to cut me in half. I then came up with a new plan, which satisfied my mood to humiliate him as much as possible. I sidestepped his charge and ducked down. I then thrusted my staff in between his legs causing him to go flying with a massive faceplant in the end. I then stood behind him and laughed my ass off at him. He then got up slowly, with his face as red as a tomato. He then took another charge at me with his axe, but I decided that I had had enough. I met him in combat, and as he took a crushing downward blow towards my head, I held Oathkeeper up and caught the axe on it. I then used his momentum to throw him over my head, and into the Acheron. The Minotaur then went under, then began thrashing about.

At first, I thought that he could not swim. Then, I realized that he was literally melting. Not the normal way that monsters usually do, but in a way that left me feeling sorry for him. He was melting like the water was acid, and it was eating away at him. His great fur coat had massive holes in it, and it was beginning to eat through the skin. After a few seconds, the water did eat through the skin, at which point he began to bleed. Now, I had always thought that monsters were just made of golden dust, and did not have any innards at all. I was wrong. They are flesh and blood just like me, but usually they are not wounded long enough for demigods to see that they have these innards before I kill them. At this point, I decided that I had to help this poor, misfortunate, creature, especially since I had put him there. As I began to walk to the Acheron, I felt a hand on my ankle. When I looked down, I saw that Kronus had awoken.

"Wait, Percy. You must be careful a dieing animal often lashes out at anything near it. If you are not careful, you could be pulled in with him. Do not use your staff either, because he could pull it in, and then you may not get it back." Kronus rasped as he lay there. I nodded and lied Oathkeeper down next to Kronus. Next to the River was the Minotaur's axe. I quickly grabbed that, and ran to the side of the River. Along the way, using a rope made of strips of my t-shirt that I had made a while ago, I tied myself to a tree that I could have sworn was not there a few minutes ago but I was thankful just the same. I then took advantage of the omega shape of the axe and hooked his horn and pulled him out. I then dragged him over next to Kronus, who had passed out again. Now, I fell over, completely exhausted. I fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

When I finally awoke again, I took an assessment of my current situation. I knew that Kronus had broken some bones, but there was not really anything I could do for him until he woke up so that I could figure out which bones were broken. The Minotaur, on the other hand, was stirring. I quickly got up. I knew from experience that it was never a good idea to appear weak to the Minotaur.

After a few minutes of stirring, his eyes opened. For the first time ever, I saw signs of intelligence in his eyes. At that moment, I heard a sound that I never even thought exsisted. The Minotaur spoke. His voice was like nothing one would ever expect from a monster as fearsome as he. His voice was deeper than the lowest bass. It sounded like thunder from miles away, the sorrowful song of the great blue whale, and the peaceful lowing of a great cow. It sounded like all of these, combined together to form the most powerful, but yet the most sorrow laden voice I had ever heard, and I suspect, ever existed. The Minotaur spoke the first words that he has ever said to another being. He said "Oh, Demon from the Great Waters. Why hast thou saved me?"

At this, I took a step back. "What trickery is this? You are not supposed to talk! You are supposed to be just a dumb animal! This is not possible! You are a monster anyway! You sound human, and yet you are not able to use the Mist here! Who is it, that speaks through the mouth of the Minotaur?" I demanded. "HAHAHAHAHA" the Minotaur laughed in a slow laugh, that while sounding amused, was still the saddest thing I had ever heard. "This is no trickery Demon of the Great Waters, this is the truth. I am the Minotaur, but I was not always known as the Minotaur. A long, long, LONG time ago, I was known as Moschion. That was before I became the Minotaur."

"Wait a minute. You BECAME the Minotaur? What were you before? How did you become the Minotaur then?" I said. Despite my earlier reservations, I was becoming curious. He began to laugh that sad laugh of his again. "HAHAHAHA. Slow down there, Demon of the Great Waters! I will explain everything in good time in my story. I really do wish to tell someone this story, seeing as no one has ever heard it before." He said. "Fine but first, why do you keep calling me that?" I asked. "You mean you do not know? All monsters have given you this name. We have all feared you ever since the second Titan war. When you fight us, you turn into someone else. You become a hurricane, a whirlwind, an unholy terror on the battle field. The Gods and demigods cannot see everything we do, and so we gave you the name Demon of the Great Waters, for you fight like an unstoppable force, and when you do, you gain an aura that looks like the ocean is whirling around you. Most monsters are afraid of you, but we do as ordered, and so we must attack you." He said. "Well then, thank you for the reputation, but please call me Percy. That is my real name." I said, rather amazed that I was that feared among the world of monsters.

"Percy… hmmm… that is a good, strong name, young Percy. I will remember that. Now, let me begin my story." He said rubbing his chin.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: And that is the end of chapter 8 folks! Thank you for making this journey with me so far, and I can't wait to continue with all of you. How is THIS for a turn of events, huh? I honestly just came up with this, and I never intended to have the Minotaur be like this. As I was writing though, I thought "Hmm the Minotaur is always portrayed as a big brute. What if I make him intelligent?" And so I did. Next chapter will have the story of the Minotaur and more, and I certainly hope you all enjoy it. The beginning of this chapter came about by high demand, because many people PMed me asking me to allow Percy and Annabeth to say their last goodbyes. A lot of people felt that they should have had time to say goodbye in between the violent fucking of Annabeth, and Chaos appearing. Well, folks, I did not originally want to do this, because it is not really very realistic for them to get a final goodbye going, however, when my most steadfast reader suggested it, I knew that I had to do it, so here it was. Actually, now that it is written, you all were right, it was a good idea, so thank you all. Now, I shall be going, and starting the next chapter soon! See you all next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello once again readers! I was rather surprised when I got so much positive feedback about the Minotaur. It is just another way that I am adding my own twist. That is why when I came up with the idea, I did it. I had some pretty awesome reviews this one, and I really liked Paragon's because he (or she) told me that I was accomplishing my goal. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that I am accomplishing my goal. Also, thank you to Megaranger and Jumpman for bringing to my attention a small problem that I have fixed. If anybody else sees a problem, PLEASE, for the LOVE OF GOD, tell me so that I can fix it. You are only making the story better when you tell me a problem to fix. Now, on to this chapter. In this chapter, I am picking up right where we left off. Now then, let the story of the Minotaur begin!**

Percy's POV:

And with that, the Minotaur began his story. "A long, long, long time ago, I was known as Moschion. I was a great warrior, and a great musician. I never played with an instrument, but when I fought, my men and I found great strength from the verses I wove in battle. At one time, we were outnumbered a hundred to one, and losing badly, but just as we were about to lose, a song began playing in my head. I knew not where this song came from, but without realizing it, I began to sing the song aloud. When my men heard this song, they became… energized, and fought like lions. Nothing could stand in their way. Our enemies, on the other hand, became terrified. "He sings of victory and glory, even as his men are slaughtered. What manor of demon is this?" they said among themselves. At the end of the battle, the enemy was all dead, and my men stood victorious. This was the first time the songs of battle came to me.

For many years after that, whenever all seemed lost, a song, a different one every time, came to me. These songs would invigorate my men, and while I sung, we could not lose. Then, came the day, when the Gods discovered this. When they asked me to sing for them, they were all enchanted. It was no battle song, for none came to me, but they were enchanted none the less. All of them, except for one. Apollo did not like this one bit, for I was just a mere mortal, and yet all of the Gods and Goddesses said that "My voice was the greatest they had ever heard, and that my music was even better." Since he was the god of Music, he felt that HE should be getting all the credit. He wanted them all to listen to him. So, he used his powers as the god of prophecy and truth to look back into my past to find out where this power came from. When he went back, he discovered that which I had not known.

Apparently, when I was a wee baby, just an hour after I was born, it was discovered that for some reason, my mother could not produce milk. Thinking quickly, my dad ran outside to find a cow, for there were no nursemaids around. When he found one that did not seem to be owned, he caught it and brought it home. My parents then used this cow's milk to feed me for many years. What we did not know though, Is that the cow WAS owned. It was one of Apollo's sacred cattle that had escaped. Drinking its milk gave me great strength and it was why I had gained the voice I have now.

Now that Apollo had this evidence, he took it before Zeus, and Zeus was forced to let him punish me, despite the fact that it was not my fault. So, to take his revenge, Apollo turned me into the Minotaur. He took my voice, saying that forever more, all I would be able to do is roar like a dumb animal. Never again, would I steal the attention of the Gods and Goddesses from him with my music. Then, once he had stolen my human form from me, along with my voice, he cast me into Tartarus, where he said "You can enjoy the company of your fellow monsters there. You know the ones, all the monsters that you and your men have killed! Yes, I am sure that you will have a lot of FRIENDS there!" After that, he obliterated every legend, every note, every thought, of my feats. No one would ever know of the mortal that out did Apollo.

And so, the years passed. My story does not end there though, because I kept my intelligence. Though I would be called on to fight demigods and kill, I refused, because I would not attack humans, having been one myself at one point. This all came to an end though, when the Labyrinth was built. When Minos built the Labyrinth, Apollo was whispering in his ear. He advised Minos to use me as the guardian of the Labyrinth. The problem was, however, that I refused to fight anybody. If somebody came into the Labyrinth, I would try and help them through. So, to fix this problem, Minos enlisted the help of some minor God or Goddess or something, I never knew what, to cast a spell on me. It robbed me of my intelligence and my free will, and forced me to obey Minos' orders. It was then, that I became a true monster. The years past, and I never knew what I was doing. Minos forced me to kill, capture, or maim anyone he wanted. That was why I attacked you, Percy, because Minos forced me to. I thought I would never be free of his will until you through me into the Acheron. I suppose the River washed away whatever magic was binding me. For that, I am forever in your debt, Percy." He said to me, bowing his head.

"I will destroy Minos for this!" I said angrily. I could not believe that this was all true, but I knew that Minos was an evil bastard, but this was too far. Controlling myself, I turned back to the Mino… No, I will never use that name for him again, Moschion is his name. "What do you intend to do now, Moschion?" Will you go off, and fight your own battles? Or will you come with us? We need all the help we can get." Moschion looked thoughtful for a moment. "No, Percy, I don't think that is a good idea. I wish to go and get myself back together. I want to find out what I have done, and possibly find a way to fix what I have done. Maybe someday, we can join forces, but not right now. I need to heal myself."

_"Bravo, young Percy, you have certainly proved yourself to me."_ I heard from behind me. I quickly turned around. There was a woman floating over the River Acheron. She had a rather sad expression on her face, but there was a certain happiness hidden in the sad expression. She was dressed in flowing gown, but they had splashes of crimson on it, and I had a bad feeling that it was blood. There also was chains holding her back to the river. Why, I do not know, but they seemed to not weigh anything. I could tell that she was a Nyaid. She began speaking again, _"I am the Spirit of the Acheron River. I cannot say how glad I am to see you after all this time. I am most impressed with you. You have proved worthy of my assistance. You have proved that you are capable of administering great pain when you defeated Kronos and the Minotaur."_ I interrupted her, "His name is not the Minotaur, his name is Moschion." I said angrily. _"I am sorry, you are right, young Percy. I did not realize that he had such an impact on you. Anyway, you have shown that you are capable of administering great pain when you defeated Kronos and Moschion. You also showed that even though you are a great warrior, you have the ability to heal great pain. You showed this when you listened to that which had never been heard before, the story of Moschion. In doing these things, you have proven yourself worthy of my help. This is something that is a decision though, because what I do can never be undone. My gift, if you choose to accept it, is that I will turn you into a vampire."_ she said, finally smiling, and showing her hands.

"Um… EXCUSE ME? Did you just say "Turn me into a vampire"? Because I am pretty sure that that is what you just said, and if so, that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard." I said, looking at her like she was insane. _"Indeed, that is exactly what I said. What do you know of vampires to begin with?"_ she said, raising an eyebrow. "That becoming one will just give me a bunch of weaknesses I really don't need. I would not be able to go into sunlight, I could no longer handle crosses, garlic, or holy water. I really like garlic. Not only that, but then I must kill to survive, and that is not monsters. I would have to kill HUMANS. That is the worst idea I have heard in a long time." I said, still looking at her like she was crazy, which I was beginning to think she was. Then she began laughing. _"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, Oh I love these people that think that movie vampires are real. Yes, a vampire cannot go into the sunlight, but all of those other myths are complete bullshit. At any rate, I do not intend to turn you into a full vampire, only a half vampire. A half vampire, while not as powerful as a full vampire, can go into the sunlight. You will have all the same powers as a vampire, but you will be weaker than a full one, and you will be able to go into the sunlight. Also, while you do need blood to survive, you do not have to kill anybody. Only a vampire pig would eat that much blood. You only need a little, and with your other powers, they will never feel any pain. Another advantage of being a half vampire is that you will not need as much blood to survive, and you don't JUST live off of blood anyway. You still need food. You do not need to take my offer, but if you don't, I cannot help you, and you will never escape this place. Knowing this, do you still refuse my offer?"_ she asked. I looked at her. I was now sure that she was crazy, but she was right, I could never make it out of here. If I accept her offer, I will get out of here, but I will only survive by sucking someone's blood. No, I will accept her offer, but I will not eat any blood from humans. I will survive on animals' blood. "Fine, I accept your offer, if only to get out of here to avenge Annabeth." _"Good choice, young Percy. Now, step forward."_ she said. I stepped forward. I was rather nervous, as bared my neck to her. _"No, you idiot, I am not going to bite your jugular you idiot! I could kill you that way! Show me your hands."_ she said impatiently. I held up my hands and she looked down and said, "Good. Now, I must test your blood to see if this can be done." With that, she floated down, and became solid. She then walked up to me, and faster than I could blink, she poked one of my fingers with her unusually sharp nails. "OW!" I said, jumping backwards. _"Oh suck it up! Don't be a pussy, you have endured far more pain than that!"_ she said, glaring at me, she then licked the small amount of blood that was on her finger, and tasted it for a moment, before declaring to me, _"You have good blood, this will work. Now, hold out your hands."_ she said, as she stabbed each of her fingers with her nails. She then, when I held up my hands, stabbed me with her nails in each finger simultaneously, faster than I could blink. She then reached forward, and pushed each of her fingers to mine, so that each of her wounds met with one of my wounds. _"This will feel weird, but once it reaches your heart, it is going to hurt. Badly."_ she said. Then, there began an odd sucking and swooshing feeling in my fingers. I realized that we were exchanging blood. This went on for about a minute, before it hit my heart. "FUCK!" I swore as I doubled over. I then collapsed on the ground.

_"Percy, wake up!"_ I heard. I woke up to a sharp pain in my chest. "Gah, shit! It still hurts!" I said, rubbing my chest, when I realized that my fingers were still bleeding freely. _"Lick your fingers, this is so that we can test if it works."_ she said, ignoring my complaints. I licked my fingers, glaring at her, but when I looked at my fingers again, my wounds were healing. _"Your saliva now has healing properties. The rest of your powers will manifest as time goes on. This is good, it means that the transfer worked."_ she said before I interrupted her, saying "Ok that is kind of cool. I have magic spit now! What else can I do?" _"You will find out as time goes on. I foresee that you will find a teacher, but I can tell you that this "magic spit" as you so call it, is what will keep your victoms from discovering you, because it will heal the wounds. Now, before you go, I have some things to tell you to help you on your journey. The first thing you need to know is that a new prophecy has been given by Apollo himself. the prophecy is this:_

_THE LORD OF ALL SHALL TURN_

_THE HERO CAST TO THE PIT_

_THIS SHALL MARK THE FINAL BATTLE'S APPROACH_

_ONE SCORE FROM THEN, YOUR FATE DECIDED_

_WITHOUT YOUR HERO'S RETURN_

_ALL WILL FALL_

_ON THAT DAY_

_ONE SHALL STAND_

_ONE SHALL FALL_

_I do believe that you are the hero of the Prophecy, but I do not think that you will do this alone. I have heard another prophecy that I believe coincides with this one. It goes like this._

_When the final battle approaches_

_The Hero will be cast to the pit_

_His heart and sword broken_

_and all seems lost_

_He shall fail without_

_a team of companions,_

_but even with them,_

_all shall fail_

_If the hero of legend does not let go_

_and find his new hope._

_You may interpret that prophecy how you like, but I believe that it refers to you as well, but it is meant as a guide for you. Do what you wish with this knowledge, I have at last past it on to someone else. The last thing I have to tell you is this. You will find new friends in hidden places. This teacher you find, he may help you, but you will have to convince him. Go now, young Percy, with this new knowledge, and find the last three rivers, for they will guide you. I do not know what their challenges will be, but they will be difficult. Goodbye, Percy…._" she said as she faded away.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: And that raps up the end of chapter 9! I have several announcements for you all this time, so listen up. First, I will not be changing this whenever I read the House of Hades. I have worked too hard on this to throw it all down the drain. I may add some things to the story whenever I do read it, but I will not be stopping this story. As a note to any future readers, I started this before The House of Hades was written, so if things do not coincide with that story, sorry. It does, however, take place AFTER the House of Hades. Second, I do not know how many people reading this will recognise this, but I have to give credit anyway. The idea for turning Percy into a vampire came from the book series Cirque Du Freak, which I just started recently. Also, I will not be using bullshit vampires from twilight or some other series, I rather prefer this series' vampires because it seems a lot more realistic. Don't worry if you have never read the series, because I will be telling you everything that pertains to this story. This brings me to my third point. If you do not like the idea of vampire Percy, let me know. I can rewrite the chapter so that the gift is something else, BUT, if you do not like the vampire idea, you must come up with a new gift, not me. Even then, I will have to see if I can come up with a new storyline for the new idea. I only chose the vampire idea out of the rest of my ideas BECAUSE I had a storyline for it. So please, on that note POST YOUR GOD-DAMN REVIEWS! I want to know what you guys think! I won't make ultimatums, but please review! Thank you all for reading and see you all next time!**


	10. Chapter 10

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello once again readers! I have had excellent reviews about the whole vampire idea, and for any of you that still have some worries about it, RELAX! The story's main focus will not be about Percy being a vampire. All it is going to do is make Percy have a touch more badassery (that is a word now deal with it) and have some more powers. Now, for notes on the story itself. As you can all probably predict, Percy is going to be creating a team of heroes. BUT, you all hold the choices I am going to be putting up 2 poles on my profile for you all to vote on. The first one is how big the team will be. I am thinking somewhere between 7 to 15 members. The second poll is who you want the members to be. These members can be from anywhere, mythology or video game, or another book. Since I will be putting up the list, anyone who is on there is someone that I know enough about to put in the story. They will all be well known people, and you may vote on however many you like. I will hold the final say, but what you people chose does have an impact. Those characters that DO come from other books and such will be written as though they are part of mythology. Most of the members though, will already be in the PJ series. Kronos and Percy's teacher will be 2 of the members, not including Percy. Artemis may or may not be a part of it. I don't really want her to be a part of it because Percy would never let her do it. Plus, I have other plans as far as she goes. Now, ON WITH THE STORY THEN!**

Percy's POV:

After the Spirit of the Acheron faded away, I turned around to my small group. "Well then… That was… interesting. Are you still leaving us Moschion?" I asked, desperately trying not to think about what I had just become in order to get out of here. Thankfully, due to the magic of Tartarus, I would not have to feel the bloodlust until I got out of here, but after that, well… I don't know what I am going to do, but I refuse to suck people's blood. "No, young Percy, I will not be coming with you. Maybe someday in the future, we will meet again, and at that time, we will be able to fight together, but for now, I must gather the monsters. If there is a battle coming, and it is against Chaos, then you will need all the help you can get. I must go to rouse the armies of the Monsters. Farewell, young Percy!" he said, interrupting my thoughts as he turned to leave. "Goodbye, Moschion, and maybe we will see each other again!" I said, waving to him as he left.

A little while after he left, Kronos began to stir. I rushed over to him to help him up. When I got there, I realized that the damage was a lot worse than I thought. He was bleeding in several places, his right arm was at an odd angle, and he was struggling to breathe. I felt his chest. He had four broken ribs. His right arm was broken, and his left leg was dislocated at the hip from where Moschion had caught his foot and swung him down. "Wh… what the hell happened? OH SHIT that hurt! Stop it Percy!" he said, waking slowly before he jerked from me moving his leg. "I am sorry Kronos, but your right arm is broken, you have four broken ribs, and a dislocated leg. I can relocate the leg, I was taught how to at camp first aid, but it is going to hurt. Do you want something to bite down on, because I have to do this NOW before it starts to heal like this." I said urgently, holding him still. He nodded his head, and so I took off my shirt and gave it to him. He put it in his mouth and nodded his head to show that he was ready. "Ready, I am gonna do it on three." POP! "AAHH FUCK" he yelled into the shirt. "I thought you were doing it on three!" He said, taking the shirt out of his mouth. "Because if I had done that, you would have tensed your muscles making it harder for me to do it. Now, unless I can find some Nectar and Ambrosia, we are going to be stuck here for weeks waiting for that to heal. So… um… don't go anywhere." I said as I turned around to go make a fire to keep him warm while I was gone and to keep the monsters away.

After that was done, I turned to leave. As I reached down to pick up my staff, I heard Kronos speak. "Wait, Percy. Why…" I quickly said "Shush! Go to sleep! I will be back soon, I am going to find nectar and/or ambrosia. We can talk when I get back." He nodded and closed his eyes, going back to sleep. With that, I turned around, and set off. I walked for as near as I could estimate, about half an hour.

After I had walked for half an hour, I came across a small hut. I walked up to it cautiously, holding my staff at a ready position. I knocked on the door with the end of my staff "HELLO? ANYBODY HOME?" I yelled out. When nobody answered, I reached for the doorknob. I saw that the door was already open, so I pushed it open with the end of my staff. When I looked inside, I realized that this hut was enchanted. It was bigger on the inside than the outside. Stepping in the hut, I was standing in a hallway that had three doors in it, and a set of stairs going up and a staircase going down. When I pushed open the first door, it led to a gourmet kitchen. I quickly looked through the fridge and all the cabinets for nectar or ambrosia. They were all empty. I then left the kitchen and moved on to the next door. Inside that door was a master bedroom. The bed looked unused. In the next room, there was a living room there was nobody there either, but there was an empty stone fireplace with a large couch and a 100 inch television set. There was also an old wooden rocking chair in front of the fireplace. "I bet whoever owns this house watches some great football games on that TV" I said wistfully. I then decided that since I had not been attacked with a massive amount of monsters, that I would go and get Kronos. This place was much easier to defend anyway.

After about two hours of struggling, I finally managed to get Kronos to the hut. The dude really needs to lay off the twinkies. I managed to get him into the master bedroom and into the bed before I collapsed on the couch in the living room. I turned on the television and promptly fell asleep.

When I woke up, there was a fire burning in the beautiful fireplace, and football was playing on the television. In the rocking chair, there sat a middle aged man rocking away, staring into the fire. "So. You're awake then." He said. He had a deep voice, but it was no where near as deep or as beautiful as Moschion's. "Uhhh… Yeah. Is this your house? I am really sorry about just barging in here, but my… companion, is pretty beat up. We can leave if you want, sir" I said, grabbing my staff, expecting him to attack. "Relax, if I had wanted to kill you, I could have done that already. No, I have been expecting you. My name is Tartarus." Tartarus said.

My jaw dropped. "You're Tartarus? Really? Um… sorry to just drop into your… body? I guess? I thought you were evil, why do you just seem to be so normal." I said as I let go of Oathbreaker. Tartarus sighed, "A common misconception. Because I am full of evil shit, I must be evil as well. No, I am rather neutral. I could actually even be considered good if you think about it. I am a prison FOR evil. Is that not a good thing? I think so. At any rate, you need help. I can see that very well, and so I have been helping you. Why do you think you have found the Rivers so easily. I have been leading you to them. That oak tree you made your staff out of? I put that there for you. I have been with you ever since you fell in here. Now, I must help you again, but this time, you must do something. A long time ago, I hid… something in a cave. I know not where it came from, but I want you to retrieve it for me. If you can do that, I will help you and Kronos, and you can use this place as a base for the time you are here. Does that sound like a deal to you?" he finished with his hand sticking out for me to shake. "That sounds like a pretty good deal to me, but where is the cave?" I said. I did not really have much of a choice but to trust him since he controlled the entire realm that I was currently in. I shook his hand.

"It is right here." he said, gesturing with his hand. When I looked where he was pointing, a cave was right in the middle of the wall. When I turned back around, he was back in his chair, fast asleep. I turned back to the cave, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

When I stepped inside, the wall sealed behind me. Oh well, I will worry about that after I get… damn, I never asked what it is I was looking for. Oh well, I guess I will know it when I see it. I started walking down the path. After a few minutes, I came upon a little old lady. She asked me "Are you the challenger of my game? Are you the solver of riddles?" Her voice seemed older than time itself. "I am, I think. I guess I have to beat your game to proceed, don't I?" She nodded. "Ok then, let's go…. What do I do?" I asked. "I will ask you three riddles. If you can solve them, I will allow you to continue on. If you cannot, I will send you back. Your first riddle is this:

I am always hungry,

I must always be fed,

The finger I touch,

Will soon turn red"

I thought about it for a few minutes, talking to myself "A Cyclops is always hungry, and so it must always be fed, but if I touch one, my finger won't turn me red. Always hungry… feed… what do your feed that turns you red… fire… FIRE! The answer is fire!" I exclaimed, finally coming to an answer. "Very good, boy… Now for your next question:

Ripped from my mother's womb,

Beaten and burned,

I become a blood thirsty killer.

What am I?"

Again, I pondered the riddle. "Ripped from a mother's womb, that could be a fetus, but a fetus never killed anybody. An animal, if it is beaten and burned is definitely dangerous, but it is not ripped from a mother's womb. What is it… what is it… IRON! IRON ORE!" I yelled. She glared at me. "Yes, yes, you are correct. How are you so smart boy? I have never met a demigod, particularly a son of Poseidon, that was this intelligent. They are heroic, yes, but only in a child of Athena have I ever seen this much intelligence." She said. I looked down, and my heart fell into my shoes, or what was left of them at any rate. I answered her quietly, "My girlfriend, she was a daughter of Athena. She died not long ago, right before Chaos cast me down here. Before all of that happened though, she loved riddles as a hobby. She always told me "Seaweed brain, there are hundreds of monsters that will try and get you with riddles. You can't always fight your way through, so you had best learn as many as you can." One of our pastimes was to tell each other riddles. I would always cheat and look up new riddles online, because the ones that I made up never challenged her, but she would make up new ones for me to solve. I guess all that time paid off." A tear dripped down from my face. The old lady's face softened. "Ah, I see. Well, there is one more riddle that I have for you, and if you can give me the answer, you may proceed. The last riddle is this:

I make men lose their wits

but without me their life has no meaning

I am an oddity

that no one can explain

It comes from the deepest part of your very being

In the end, I conquer all

But all things considered

I am the most pure of all"

I did not need to think about this one, I knew it automaticly. "The answer is love." I said quietly, "Because nobody knows where it comes from, and nothing can stand against love. When it is true, it is pure, and the Gods know I lost my mind over it."

"Very good, Perseus Jackson. You may proceed. Before you go, however, I will tell you this: three challenges you must face to escape this place. These challenges are not as easy as they may appear, for to pass each one, you must look beyond what seems to be there, and more often than not, face your fear." she said. As soon as she finished, she vanished without a trace. In her place was a whole in the wall that was big enough to pass through standing up. I did not really see any other choice, so I went through the hole. As soon as I stepped through it, it closed behind me.

Now, I was in a circular room. It seemed to be arranged as an arena of some sort. Standing in the middle was a man. He did not look like much, and his back was turned to me. He looked fit with a short, military style haircut. His back was to me, but he looked calm. His hair was a dark shade of brown, almost black. He had no shirt, and his pants seemed to be a rough sort of cloth. Finally, he spoke, "So, you have made it past the old lady. Not many make it past her, you know. You should feel proud. However, now, you must make it past me. There is no one who has ever made it past me. Now, we fight." with that, he turned around. The lights became brighter, and I saw that he was covered in scars. I suspect his back was too, but the lighting was too dim to see that before. In his hands, with the point in the ground, was a greatsword. I pulled my staff off of my back, and prepared for battle.

Neither of us moved. Both of us were analyzing each other. Looking for a weak spot. Finally, he twitched. I seized my chance, and lunged forward with a crushing blow to the head. He did not move an inch. CRACK! Oathkeeper made a solid connection to the head. He did not move. "HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING! That blow would have knocked sense into ARES' thick skull!" I spat at him. He did not answer, but instead, picked up his sword. The sword morphed into a thick staff. I looked at the staff, and realized that it was Oathkeeper. "Ah shit" I said.

"This is your exact staff. That sword I had before, that was Excalibur." he said, before attacking. He was strong! I barely managed to stand against his crushing downward blow. He then proceeded to attack in rapid movements. swish CRACK! A strike to the left. swish CRACK! A strike to the right. I blocked both, then swung again. He did not block it again, and still did not move an inch. When he swung again, this time a downward strike, I blocked it again. The force of the blow drove me to my knees. This blow was even stronger than the first! He began attacking me again, managing to swing at me six times, before I managed to put a hit in myself. This time, I aimed for his right knee, intending to shatter his kneecap. When I did this, he simply stood there and let me hit him again, before he attacked again. This time, he surprised me with an upward cut which sent me flying backwards. I then flipped, and managed to land with one hand on the ground and my feet behind me, so that my other hand with the staff was behind me with my staff running up my side. I wish I could take life snapshots because that was a pretty bad ass move right there, but there would be no time anyway.

The fight proceeded on like this for about half an hour. Every time I hit him, he got stronger. "This isn't working" I said to myself. I had to come up with something new. I thought back to what the old lady said. "face your fear" How is that suppose to help me? I am not afraid of any foe! But… I have always been afraid of losing. Every time I fight, the fate of the world is on my shoulders. Maybe… "STOP!" I yelled. "Just stop. I give up. You are the better fighter." I knelt down and placed my staff beside me, with my head bowed. He walked over to me, and looked down. He then began laughing.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA, oh my, you are an intelligent one. No one has ever managed to figure my secret out, until now. Very good, young warrior. Once again, you have proved worthy to proceed. Be warned, however, that the next challenge shall be the hardest challenge you have faced yet." I nodded. He then vanished just like the old woman. In his place was a hole with large, ornate gates that swung open. I walked through it.

When I walked through it, I saw a person sitting in the middle of a room. It stood up. I could not see the figure's face. It then began to speak. "Greetings, challenger. You are the first person to ever make it this far, and believe me, many have tried. This is your final challenge. In a moment, everything you see will disappear. This is only a pocket dimension for me to give you your final warning. This is your warning: In the next room, you will be forced to face your worst fears and relive your worst memories. I do not know what they are, but if you are a great enough warrior to make it this far, I know that you have seen horrors in your life. Do not think of this as just an illusion. Even if you know that you are in an illusion, everything will happen as it does in your fears or memories. For example, if your worst fear was being shot, you will be shot, and it will feel like you are being shot. For all intents and purposes, you will have been shot, but you will not die. You must figure out how to beat your fears and memories. Knowing this, do you still wish to carry on to the next room?" I thought about it, and answered, "I don't really want to, but I must do this to save my companion." The hooded figure nodded, and vanished along with the whole room I had been standing in.

I walked through the darkness, until I found a door. I opened the door, and was immediately sucked through. When I stopped moving, I was standing on top of a mountain. In front of me was… "Zoe… no no no NO! You died! I was not able to save you! but... but..." I stuttered. She turned and looked at me before speaking, "Yes, you did watch me die, you stupid male, and it was all to save your girlfriend, that you could not even save from death! So RUN little hero! RUN from your fear!" Every word she spoke was like a whip on my back. I took a step back, and fell right off of the mountain.

When I stopped falling, I was standing in the middle of a desert. In front of me was "Bianca… No you're here too? No, I am sorry! I tried to save you! I was not good enough" I said, backing up rapidly. "Well you did not do a very good job, now did you?" she said, glaring at me as I turned and ran "RUN LITTLE HERO, RUN!" she yelled after me, "AND LIVE WITH YOUR MISTAKES!" When I finally stopped running, I was in a familiar forest.

"PERCY, HELP ME! MAKE HIM STOP!" I heard. That was Annabeth! I ran towards the voice, yelling "I'm coming Annabeth, don't worry! I am coming!" I made it to the cave, where Annabeth was being raped all over again, but this time I had to watch the whole thing. Finally, I broke free. I swung at Mark, but Oathkeeper passed right through him. He laughed and vanished, and I ran to Annabeth, crying once again. This time, though, she was not being raped by plants as I picked her broken body up. "I am so, so, so very sorry Annabeth." I sobbed into her shoulder. I felt her pat my back "It is ok Percy, there was nothing you could have done." She said, instead of insulting me and confirming… my… worst fears! That is how I have to beat this! I have to face the fact that I could not save them, but if Annabeth is telling me that there is nothing that I could have done, then… "NO! What could I have done? You are LYING! I should have killed that fucker I did not check to make sure he was dead that is it isn't it?" Annabeth stepped back, and the forest faded around us, and she turned into a tall being with a ghostly grey cloak. The figure spoke in a quiet voice, "Very good, Percy, you have passed the final test. You have proven that you are truly a hero of legend. Never will the world forget you, and you are destined for greatness. You may collect the treasure of the ancients." The figure stepped to the side and pointed towards the far side of the cave." I put the biggest smile on my face, and walked straight up to it, pulled my fist back, and delivered a right cross that it would never forget.

"AHAHAHAHA! Very good! That was a nice swing, and I was rather expecting that, I must say. It does not matter, take your prize and it will take you out of here." he said. I nodded and walked towards the end of the cave. At the end, there was a scythe. I knew that this had to be it, so I walked up to it and grabbed it. Immediately, I heard an ancient clang, like a massive bell, then there was a bright flash and I felt a burning pain, before I knew no more.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Holy shit, that was a long chapter. I am deeply sorry for how long it took me to get through this chapter, but hey, it is a new record for me. Please review, and please vote. I will add anything you want to the list, provided I know what it is. I want to make it clear that ANYBODY can vote. It does not matter if you have an account or not. There will be hell to pay for ending it like this, I know, but at least you will all keep reading. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA you are all slaves to my will! Kidding, but anyway, if you PM me (Which I enjoy) I will probably not be able to answer you until the end of the weekend because I am going to go camping. The poll will not be closing down for a while, so anybody who is reading this after the next chapter is posted, PLEASE VOTE TOO! You may select as many people as you wanted on the team minus 3 for Percy his teacher, and Kronos. Thank you to all the people who helped with this chapter, especially Grey Fox Ninja, who is my beta for the foreseeable future, providing he doesn't quit. Check out his story whenever he posts it. See you next time, my faithful readers!**


	11. Chapter 11

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello once again audiences! I am a little disappointed that more people did not vote, but, it is your choice. I would like to remind you all that my beta has his story up, and honestly, it is pretty good. You people should check it out. At any rate, I have added many people to the vote, and I really want you guys to vote. As for my personal opinion, I will only tell you this. Unless a lot of people really don't want him on there, I think I am going to put Green Arrow on there because he is a bad-ass, and the team needs an archer. The next thing is this: PLEASE REVIEW! Just because I have a beta does not mean that I don't want you opinions. I want to know what you guys think (and girls) otherwise, my beta and I may be the only people that enjoy this story. Please post your reviews, I really enjoy reading them and they make my story so much better in the long run. I will not make stipulations like "I will not post until I get 10 reviews" because I am going to continue this story no matter what. It does make it far better though when you are reviewing. You all are wonderful to me, and I hope you all give me many reasons to keep writing. Now then, on with the story!**

Percy's POV:

When the bright light faded, I was standing in the living room of the house, and Tartarus was standing and looking at the fire. When he noticed that I was back, he said, "So, did you make it through? Or, are you back here because you failed the test" I walked straight up to him and punched him in the face. he went flying backwards. He then laughed, saying "I suppose I deserved that, after making you go through that ordeal. But, did you get the item I requested?" I glared at him and said, "Yes I did, but I don't know what happened to it after I grabbed it. Now help Kronos." Tartarus looked at me hard, then snapped his fingers. "It is done, he will be asleep for a while now, and I hope that you have a good story to tell me." I nodded, and told him the story from beginning to end. I don't know why, but I could not leave anything out, but I did not feel any force that might compel me to do so. I suppose that I really had no choice, and there was no point in lying anyway. So, I told him. When I told him about prize at the end the "treasure of the Ancients" His eyes widened, but he told me to continue. I did and finished quickly. When I was finished, he was silent for a long while before he spoke.

"I was not truthful with you. I did not place that scythe there. I knew that there was something in there, and since I was born, I have been sending the greatest Heroes down to try and get this item from the cave. King Arthur, Joan of the Arc, Robin Hood, Hercules, Odysseus, ect. They all tried and failed. All the way up until you. This was never for my gain, but for theirs. Long ago, I was given the duty of selecting the most worthy Heroes, and testing them. That is why there are monsters, and that is why I keep them. I will do this forever, and while it is sad when they die, I make sure that they die as HEROES!" he finished proudly. "But who told you to do all of this?" I questioned him. "I am not allowed to tell you, but I think you will meet him soon enough. I can tell you though, that the treasure CHOSE you. Otherwise, you never would have gotten it out." he said. "But I did not get it out! It vanished when I was teleported out!" I exclaimed. He smiled, but did not say anything, until finally he said, "No matter, I will keep my side of the bargin. You may use this as your base of operations, and I will assist you as much as possible. Now then, go get some sleep, and when you awaken, you and Kronos can decide what you are going to do next." I nodded, and went and found a room. I lied down on the bed, and promptly passed out.

When I woke up, I walked out of the room to the kitchen I had found before I went to bed. Kronos was sitting there, eating a massive burger. I went in and made myself a massive burger as well, and sat down across from him. I don't care if you aren't supposed to be hungry in Tartarus, but you still feel empty after a while and only food will fix it. For a while, all that could be heard was the sound of eating, until finally, Kronos spoke. "So, what happened while I was out? How did we get here? All I remember is you fixing my leg, then me passing out." I briefly gave him an explanation of what happened, and when I reached the part about the treasure of the Ancients, his eyes widened. When I finished, he spoke. "Tartarus said that when we were both awake, we could decide what we will do now. I know what we are going to do, come on, we must find Tartarus." I got up and followed him

When we found Tartarus, he was sitting in the living room again, watching a football game. "GO, GO, GO!" he shouted at what looked like a Raven's touchdown, but I could not tell. I spoke up, saying, "Hey, Tartarus! Kronos is awake, and he needs to talk to you. He won't tell me what he wants." Tartarus turned around, and said to Kronos, "Go, I have already created the room that you are looking for, I have a pretty good idea of your intentions. I will join and watch later." Kronos nodded, thanked him, and left the room. I had no choice, really, but to follow, and so I did, becoming more and more confused by the second. We went down the stairs to another hallway, which at the end, there was a large circular door. Kronos walked up to it, tapped the door, and it rolled away. We then walked inside.

As I walked inside, I took a look around. We appeared to be in a massive room, but much more than that, it was too dark to tell. As I walked to what seemed to be the center of the room, I took a look around. At that point, I heard Kronos speak. "I know what it is that you received from that test, and you did not lose it. I am the only one that can train you to use that which you found, but the path to learning it is not easy." I heard a sliding sound, and turned around to see Kronos pulling his Scythe from the time/space vortex he kept it in. He then slammed the end down, into the center of the floor, and torches lit up all the way around the room. We were standing in the middle of an arena.

"What are you talking about? I didn't get anything from the cave!" I protested, backing up and taking out Oathkeeper. "Put your staff away and look at your arms! Have you looked at yourself since you got back from that cave?" He shouted. "I am not attacking you, I am going to TRAIN YOU!" Astonished, I looked down at my arms. There were now dark tribal looking symbols running up my arms. They seemed to run all the way up my arms, across my back and to the other arm, but I can't see my back, so that will have to wait. Immediately, my thoughts shot back to the cave. When I was teleported out of it, there was a bright flash, followed by an intense burning feeling. That must have been me getting these symbols! "But what do they mean?" I asked, "Since you seem to know so much about them." He looked at me for a moment, and said, "I do not know what they mean, exactly, but those are the Marks of the Heroes, and as such, they will change as you wear them. Everyone who has carried those marks has done something different to gain them, and they have all appeared differently by the end of their lives. They all started out looking like yours do now. As you live your life, they will change to reflect it. In this way, you will know some of what it means, based on when you got that specific mark. No one knows what they mean exactly, but I can tell you this. They hold many powers, powers that you or I may never know, but I can teach you some of them. Their main function, however, is to hold your weapon. Your weapon, is that which you found when you got the Marks. Now, summon your weapon!" He finished with a command. "How?" I asked. He answered back, "Look at your right wrist. On it should be a small mark. Press it." I did so, and my marks lit up a glowing sea green. From my wrist, something began to grow. When it stopped coming out of me, it was about my height of 6 feet. It was made of a strange metal that I had never seen before. As I held it in my hands, a blade sprouted from the end of it that was crescent shaped. When it finished, I was left with a wicked looking Scythe.

I gasped as I tried to take it in all at once. It was made up of a strange looking metal, that seemed to be a helix of celestial bronze, imperial gold, and stygian iron, but that all seemed to combine together to form a silvery grey. As for the wooden part, it was made of some sort of wood that I could not recognise, with metal fittings all up it turning it into a work of deadly art. The designs running up the shaft (I don't know if that is what it is called, but that is what I am calling it) were the same tribal pattern as the symbols on my arms. When it reached the top, and joined with the blade, it had a metal creature that was made to look like it was holding the blade in it's mouth. I think it was a dragon, but it looked like no dragon I had ever seen. The whole thing seemed to radiate a sort of deadly power. "This is mine? What does it do? What am I even supposed to do with it? It is amazing and all, and from what I can tell, it well made, but I am a swordsman, and only recently a staff fighter. How am I supposed to use this?" I asked, turning back to Kronos. "As for what can it do, I do not know everything, but I know that it will concentrate your current power over the ocean, causing you less of a strain to channel it. As for what are you going to do with it, that is up to you, but now, I am going to train you in the path of the Scythe. Do you accept?" he said in a commanding voice. I nodded, and immediately, he shouted "THEN SAY SO! While I am training you, you will call me master, or teacher, for you are my pupil, and as such you will teach me with respect. DO YOU UNDERSTAND!" he finished. I did not like it, but I needed someone to teach me, and this is the only person I knew who would teach me. So, swallowing my pride, I bowed my head and said, "Yes teacher, I wish to be taught in the ways of the Scythe."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ah, at last I have made it to my favorite part in the story. I am really excited about this, because I have not seen another story that has Percy learning the ways of the Scythe. I hope you will all continue to vote, because last time I checked the poll, I only had 8 people that have voted. I really want to know what you all think! Again, I would like to thank my beta, Grey Fox Ninja. Check out his story, because it is pretty good. I am going to spend the next chapter with Percy's training, and that is going to be good. When you are reading it though, you may notice a slight character shift, because for that chapter, since he has accepted Kronos's offer to teach him, along with all of his conditions, he is going to be a more respectful Percy Jackson. Do not fear though, because he will be back to the Percy we know and love soon enough. That is just a warning, and I will remind you all in the beginning of the next chapter again. Sorry that this chapter was so much shorter than my other ones, but I thought that A) I had just posted a massive one, so a little shorter is ok, and B) I want to devote a whole chapter to the training of Percy. Now, for my last note, I really want reviews this time. I did not get many, if any, on my last chapter, and so I really hope you guys will make up for it this time. Remember, I am open to any ideas. If you have any ideas on Percy's training, and what I should include, I would be especially open to them. I really like using you guyses ideas! On that note, see you next time!**


	12. Chapter 12

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello once again audiences! This is the chapter that you all have been waiting for, or at least I have been. I have already decided on a name for the Scythe, and you will all find out soon enough. As a minor reminder, Percy will be speaking much differently in this chapter, because he has agreed to Kronos' terms, one of them being that Percy treat him with respect. That means that the way he talks is going to be more formal, and therefore more respectful. Thank you all for your wonderful reviews, and I ask you to keep them coming. In other news, I got my first deer ever, with a shot to the neck from 60 yards thank you very much. It dropped like a rock. For any of you that disagree with hunting, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you are going to stop reading because you found out I hunt, quit being a little bitch. Hunting is good for the environment, because where I live, other people have chased out most of the deer's natural predators, so, if we don't shoot some, they go and eat everything. So don't send me a review or PM about how bad hunting is. Plus, the deer is tasty. Now then, on with the story.**

Percy's POV:

Kronos nodded, and said, "Good, now then, I will tell you about the art of the Scythe. The scythe is nothing like the sword. If you want to know the truth, I do not fight like I should with the scythe, because I use my powers to allow me to do so. The scythe, despite how big it is, is a weapon of stealth. It also can serve as an excellent hand to hand, battlefield weapon, but its best use is as a weapon of stealth. The true scythe fighter has a robe or a cape to assist with the fighting technique. In reality, a scythe fighter is more of an illusionist, and that is why they use a cape or a robe. There are over 39 different illusions that require the use of a cape or robe, and I am going to teach you EVERY ONE OF THEM! In addition, I will teach you to escape from any trap or binding. I have broken over 98 bones in the attempt to pull off the perfect escape, and dislocated almost all of my joints at least once. You will go through more pain than you have ever been through, well most people have been through at any rate. You did go through the Styx. This will not be some fun game to try. There is a reason why I am the only scythe fighter in the world. You will not be a natural at this like you were when you learned to use a sword. It will take time, pain, and work. Do you understand all of this?"

I nodded and answered, "Yes teacher, I will do my best."

Kronos snapped back, "We shall see if your best is good enough. Let us begin. First, you must decide on a name for your scythe. What do you wish your scythe to be named?"

I thought for a moment, and answered back, "Teacher, my scythe shall be known as Avenger, or εκδικητής in greek, and ultórem in latin, for it shall avenge Annabeth, and all other wrongs done by those who are hurt or killed by evil." As soon as I announced this, Avenger glowed, and on its shaft, its name appeared. When it appeared though, it did something odd for a magic weapon. Normally, when a magic weapon is named, it will engrave the name on itself. When I finished the naming, it put the name on itself, but it also wrote part of my explanation on itself as well. After I finished, and it did its thing, it said this: "I am the Avenger, for I shall avenge the wrongs done by evil" I stared at it for a minute before showing it to Kronos.

Kronos stared at it for moment before stating, "This is good. That means that it likes its name. Now onto…"

I interrupted him at this point, saying, "Wait, what do you mean it likes its name? It is just a weapon. It doesn't have an opinion, Teacher." I added on at the end, remembering what he had said.

He smiled, and said, "It does not matter, for the next decision you must make, you must decide whether you wish to use a cape or a robe."

I answered back immediately, "Teacher, I wish to use a cape."

He then answered back, "Ok then, I will get you your cape by tomorrow. In the meantime, we will begin by testing you." He then led me through a series of stretches. They all hurt like a bitch, but I did not give him the satisfaction of complaining. After that, he told me to go to sleep. "Tomorrow," He said, "Will be a whole new hell for you, starting with an early morning." I went to my room, and passed out on the bed.

The next morning, I was awoken by my bed being flipped over. "RISE AND SHINE, SEA BOY" I heard. I groaned. It was Kronos, and it was WAAAAAYYYY too early. I got up though, and walked to the training arena. He then yelled at me to summon my weapon. I was now beginning to wake up, and pressed the symbol on my wrist. My scythe grew from my wrist, which still seemed pretty awesome to me. Without giving me a chance to prepare, Kronos lunged. He hit me upside the head with the but of his staff, sending me flying backwards.

CRASH

I ran into the wall. "WHAT THE FUCK" I screamed at him. Now, I was pissed. It was way too early for this shit. I thrust out my arms, and tried to summon a massive amount of water to throw at Kronos. But my power was not working! I stared down at my hands, rather dismayed that my powers were failing me. WHACK! I got hit upside the head again.

"This room shuts down all of your powers." He said smiling. This was not the good kind of smile. This was the kind of smile that says, "Lets see what your guts look like." I gulped, remembering yesterday's agreement. "And," he said, "If you EVER SWEAR IN FRONT OF ME AGAIN, I WILL GOUGE OUT YOUR EYES AND SKULL FUCK YOU! I AM GOING TO TEACH YOU DISCIPLINE, RESPECT, AND THE TRUE MEANING OF PAIN!" he finished, reverting back to drill sergent mode. I now realized what I had just walked myself into, but I have never backed down before, and this did not seem like any time to start.

I jumped to attention, and yelled "YES SIR!" This seemed to please him.

"Now then you worthless piece of shit, I am going to make a Scythe fighter out of you! Today, we will start with Combat Training. Then, once you cannot hold that Scythe any longer, we are going on a 10 mile run. After that, we are going to teach you your first illusion. Once you have mastered that, then you may sleep. DO YOU UNDERSTAND!" He finished with a yell.

"YES SIR!" I yelled back. I looked down, and I was wearing no shirt, my cape, and a pair of sweatpants.

"Lets begin then" he said, readying his scythe. He whirled his cape, and disappeared. WHAM! I got nailed on the left side. He had reappeared on my left. Before I could turn, he vanished again. WHAM! I got nailed in the right. He was vanishing faster than I could follow him! I tried to get a hit in whenever I thought I caught sight of him, but after a long time, He did not have a single mark on him. I, on the other hand, was a mass of bruises. He had kicked my ass without even using his blade. Finally, I dropped my scythe.

"I give up, teacher. I can't hold my scythe anymore." I said. His eyes flashed, and he looked disappointed that I had not lasted longer.

"Fine. On to our run then. You WILL stay with me, and every time you fall behind, I want 50 pushups before we continue. DO YOU UNDERSTAND" he yelled at me.

"YES SIR" I yelled back. And so we began. we ran out of the house and for a 10 mile run. I only fell a couple of times, but we still finished relatively quickly. Immediately afterwards, he began teaching me my first illusion.

When we returned to the arena, I was exhausted. This time, when we entered, Tartarus was sitting there watching. "ALL RIGHT THEN! Listen up sea scum, because this is the most important part of the day, and the sooner you get this mastered, the sooner you get to shower, eat, and sleep. You will wake up at the same time regardless of when you finish, so I would suggest you GET IT DONE!" he said. He then pulled from his cape a small ball. It was a smokey color, and was about the size of a marble.

"This," he said, "Is a smoke pellet. Here is a bag of them. The bag is enchanted so that you will never run out. NEVER use more than one at a time. Each pellet will emit a pillar of smoke when thrown at the ground. To use it, you remove one from the bag, and throw it directly in between your feet. This leads me to your first illusion. The illusion of vanishing. This morning, I beat the living shit out of you using this technique. It appeared that I was vanishing into smoke. The smoke was from a smoke pellet, and it was only a distraction. In reality, I was simply moving very fast, and jumping very high, while you were distracted by the smoke. Like so." he finished before throwing a smoke pellet down. When the smoke cleared, he was gone. I felt a tapping on my shoulder. He was standing right behind me. "Now you try." he said, tossing me the magic bag. I began to try. And try. And try again, until I finally mastered it. By that time, it was what felt like midnight.

"Go to bed, Percy. I will wake you in the morning. You have five hours." He said, deciding not to insult me, because he looked as tired as I was. I walked straight to bed, and passed out.

This pattern continued on for many, MANY, days. Every morning, I was woken up violently, rushed to combat training, then we did some work out after that. Sometimes it was running, sometimes it was climbing, or roof jumping, or some other activity that I suppose was training me to be a Scythe fighter. Then we would go to Illusion training. This was by far the worst part of the day. Some days, he would teach me to escape various traps. That usually involved dislocating half my bones to slip out, then relocating them. He made me practice this for hours on end, so that it would no longer require healing to fix, but it would just pop back in and be ready to go again. I discovered joints in places I didn't even know I had. There was one illusion that I did like though, and that was what he liked to call, "The Cape of Death" technique. What it was was that I would hide Avenger underneath my cape. Then, I would use the cape as a weapon of doom, and fight with the hidden scythe. It basically made it look like my cape was another weapon, and that it was cutting people's heads off. It was awesome. He taught me to use my cape to make myself look bigger, how to hide in the shadows, how to sneak past any guard even if they are looking directly at me. This entire period of time was basically one long stream of pain and misery for me, but slowly, something began to change.

I became stronger, and faster. My movements became graceful, almost catlike. It got to the point where, when combat training was over, I was not the only one with bruises. Then, on one final day, the unthinkable happened.

We were in the middle of combat training, and we were both fighting like demons. Neither of us could touch the other. We had long since begun using our blades, and to keep from cutting ourselves, Tartarus had done some sort of enchantment that made a invisible protector on the blades that vanished when we left the room. It was about a half inch off the blade, and as far as we had seen, nothing could penetrate it. They could still break bones though, so we had to be careful. As we fought, I thought about the last weeks of training. Over the course of Kronos's training, I had gotten much stronger, but not bigger. Instead, I had gotten far more compact. This was due to Kronos's special training. It would not work very well if I was huge, it would be far harder to escape a trap or binding. I was now extremely corded, with muscles like rocks. I could now dislocate almost every bone in my body, and put it right back in without much pain, and then still fight at full strength. I was now faster, able to cross a room in the blink of an eye. For two days, he had trained me in the use of poisons and their antidotes. "It is a poor warrior that uses poison to win a battle, but if you know how to use them, then you can defend against them. You also should know how to heal a poisoning, because your friends may be poisoned." I could vanish in the blink of an eye, and I could complete any illusion that ever existed. He also trained me in unarmed combat, and I knew every form of unarmed fighting. I had also been taught how to make an entrance that would surpass even an entrance by Zeus himself. "This," Kronos had said, "Is more me being petty, but you need a break, and I think you will enjoy this. At any rate, this can also change the tide of a battle, because with the right entrance, you can cause a great amount of fear in an enemy. I think you can understand how great of a weapon fear can be, if used correctly." I had become as unstoppable as a mortal could be. At once, I was jerked from my thoughts when Kronos performed an exceedingly tricky move. I blocked it, and pulled out a smoke pellet, threw it down and vanished. When I reappeared, I was directly above Kronos. Slowly, I pulled out my smoke pellets. Kronos had taught me that they could be used to put out small fires, because when they exploded, the sucked all of the oxygen out of a small area. I then threw them one at a time, at each torch that lined the walls of the room. Then, quickly, before Kronos could give the command word to relight them, I slipped Avenger down like a fish hook, and slipped it under his chin, when Kronos relit the torches, Avenger was hanging under his head.

"Dead" I growled at him from above.

I heard a slow clapping from the stands surrounding the training arena, Tartarus got up, and I removed Avenger from Kronos's neck. I stood before Kronos, and put the butt of my staff in the ground. Kronos looked at me hard, then did the same, and bowed. When he got up, he said "Very good, Perseus Jackson. The student has surpassed the master. I can teach you know more in the way of the Scythe. You are now ready to wield that weapon, and as such, I may now teach you one last thing. Look at your left wrist."

I looked down at my left wrist, and saw that there was another mark that looked exactly like the one on my right. Guessing what I was supposed to do, I pressed it. My Scythe disappeared, and from my wrist, there grew a metal tip. It elongated until it reached a length of about 3.5 feet, at which point it grew a hilt. It was a sword. No, it was more than that, it was MY sword. It was Riptide… at a glance. As soon as I gripped it, I realized that it was not Riptide. It was a much grander version of Riptide, with about an extra foot of length. It was made of the same material as Avenger, and instead of a Greek sword, the blade was instead shaped like a broadsword, which was actually fairly close to Riptide. The hilt was made of steel with a leather wrapping, and it swooped outward in a cross guard, as the design of a broadsword dictates. the crossguard was in the shape of a wave, and looked exactly like the real thing, except that it was silver. It was also balanced to the point of impossibility. I knew immediately that this was to be my new sword, because no other sword had ever felt balanced in my hands other than Riptide. I turned to Kronos, and asked angrily, "Why didn't you tell me about this? We could have saved weeks! Why would you withhold this information?"

He looked at me with pride, and answered, "There are several reasons I did not tell you. The first of which, is that I have never taught anybody my art. There is only one other Scythe fighter in this world, and he is Death. Death will never teach anyone, so I am the only one that could pass this on. When I die, and I do not know when that will be, there would be no one else to pass this art on. The second reason is that I wanted to prove that you could trust me. I could have killed you many times during the course of your training, and I didn't. While you may feel that I have betrayed you, I have not. This was the best way, and from it, you have learned much. The third and final reason is that while you have always been a great swordsmen, and some may argue the best, you are limited as a swordsmen. The scythe gives you range, it gives you stealth, it gives you power beyond a sword. There will be times when you need one and not the other. I have given you a gift. There are more reasons, but they will be revealed over time. Are you still angry at me?"

I shook my head, and said, "I cannot be angry with you. You had your reasons, and your reasons were good ones. I thank you." I bowed my head.

Suddenly I felt a burning in my back. After a few seconds, it stopped as suddenly as it had started. Guessing what had happened, I tried to turn around to see my back. Seeing my struggles, Tartarus snapped his fingers, and a mirror appeared behind me so that I could see my back. There was a new symbol in the middle of the tribal symbols. It was a scythe crossed with a sword, with a staff right in the middle making an X with a line cutting it in half. I could guess what it meant, and Kronos said behind me what I was thinking.

"That is the one of the first symbols that a bearer of the Marks of the Heroes gets. The bearer usually has a specific weapon that he or she masters, and typically, when you receive the Marks, you get a weapon with them. Once you have mastered that weapon, you receive the Master's Mark. It signifies that you are indeed, a hero worthy of bearing the Marks, and when you get it, it shows the weapons you have mastered. Your journey as the bearer of the Marks of the Hero has begun." He finished grandly.

I felt another burning. When it stopped, I had several more Marks. I had a lightning bolt running down the center of my chest. I had a Trident over my heart. I had a small circle filled with tiny lines on the right side of my chest. I had a ship on my right shoulder, and on my left shoulder, I had the empire state building. Finally, on my left shoulder blade, the name of my scythe and staff appeared. I had a lot of marks.

"Those new marks are all of your accomplishments, and your life in general. The Trident symbolizes that you are the son of Poseidon. The lightning bolt symbolizes your first quest, in which you retrieved the master bolt. The circle of lines symbolizes the Labyrinth. The ship symbolizes the quest to Greece where you saved the world again. The Empire State Building symbolizes the second Titan war, and your allegiance." he said. About when he finished, I felt a massive amount of pain in the back of my head, and I fell forward. The last thing I remembered was Kronos and Tartarus running towards me. Then I passed out.

Kronos's POV:

When Percy fell forward, I knew that something was wrong. I ran forward with Tartarus. When we got there and rolled him over, we could feel a heartbeat and see that he was breathing. When we tried to wake him however, we could not. We did not know what was wrong. We carried him to bed. By the time we got there though, he was burning hot. When we turned to leave, figuring he just needed to sleep, there was a tall man standing in the doorway.

"I know what is wrong with the boy." He said, with a sinister looking grin.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Annnnnd that wraps up chapter 12! Oh, the suspense must be killing you all. Well, TOO BAD! Mwahahahaha. Don't worry, I will do the next chapter soon. In the mean time, VOTE! I have made an edit to the rules though, because my beta and I have a plan. His character will be on the team, so when you decide how many people you want on the team, subtract four, and vote for that many members. Please vote guys and gals, because I only have 13 voters that have voted. I want at MORE! Next, please post your reviews! I love reviews. They make me happy. It only takes a minute, and the only thing I ask is that you write more than just "excellent". Lastly, please check out my beta's story, because it is going pretty great. His name is Gray Fox Ninja. Now for the last lastly comment. I have to give credit to my ideas. First, the illusionist idea came from the TV show, The Cape. The part about skull fucking, that came from some marine movie. I don't remember what the name is though. Now for the last last lastly thing (this is it I promise) I have not found a picture for the sword, and I still need a name for it. If you have a good idea for the name, or you find a good picture for the sword, shoot me a PM or put it in the reviews. Thats it for now folks, SEE YOU NEXT TIME!**


	13. Chapter 13

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello once again, faithful readers! Please continue to vote, because if you have favorited this story, then you should take an interest in what I do. I have far more follows and favorites than I do voters! You all are running out of time to vote, because the chapter that I form the teams in is fast approaching. After I have a satisfactory number of votes (The chapter before the formation of the team) I will put up the poll for how many you want on the team. I still do not have a name for the sword, and I still don't have a picture. It is ok though, because there will be no mention of the sword, or really any of his previous weapons that require the use of the name, in this chapter. In this chapter, Percy gains a new teacher. You all remember that I turned Percy into a half-vampire? Yeah, well this is the teacher that the Acheron promised him. I warn you now though, to discard any ideas you have had about vampires prior to reading this. My version is much better, or should I say, Cirque Du Freak's version by Darren Shan. Now then, ON WITH THE STORY!**

Kronos's POV:

"Who are you?" I demanded, drawing my scythe from the temporal rift. Behind me, Tartarus's fists became covered in flames of black energy.

"Relax! If I was here to hurt him, or you, I would have done it already. He is making his true transformation right now, and he NEEDS blood." the tall stranger said with an arrogant grin on his face. It was rather reminiscent of Percy's smirk.

"Blood? What are you talking about? Why would he need blood? And WHO ARE YOU?" I demanded again.

"I can see that you are not going to let me help until I answer your questions. First of all, Larten Crepsley, at your service." the now named stranger said with a bow.

"Fine, that is a start, but what do you mean blood? What is this bullshit about a final transformation?" Tartarus demanded behind me. I nodded in agreement.

"The boy has been turned into a half-vampire. I forgot that you wouldn't know that because you were passed out at the time. I am a full vampire. The spirit of the Acheron sent me to teach him." he said, with an evil grin on his face.

"BULLSHIT!" I snorted. "Empousi are the closest thing to vampires that actually exist, and they are all female. So start telling the truth. NOW!" I barked.

"I am, my friend. Why would I lie? They may have been a Greek interpretation, but I assure you, I am most definitely a vampire. The Empousi are fools; Failed attempts by some god to recreate us. I cannot very well prove it in a way that you would believe me, because most of your ideas of vampires are foolish garbage. But there is one thing that is true… sort of. While sunlight will not instantly kill me, it will burn me up in under 5 minutes. If one of you two can summon a bit of sunlight, I will show you, but I demand your word first that you will shut it off immediately. Otherwise, I will flit away, and leave the boy to die. If I am lying, you may kill me, but if I am not, you must also swear to let me save and teach the boy so that he may yet survive." Crepsley said, finally dropping the grin and instead going to a serious glare.

"I swear on the River Styx to your conditions." Tartarus said. He then made a small flashlight that emitted sunlight. He flashed it on the hand Crepsley offered, and it immediately began to blacken and burn. He quickly shut it off.

"All right, fine. You proved that you are not lying, so you may do what you need to to save Percy. After that, however, you are going to come with us and explain exactly what is going on here." I demanded. Crepsley nodded before reaching into his suit jacket. He pulled out a small bottle of a red liquid.

"Is that…" I started, pointing at the bottle in his hands.

"Blood? Yes, it is. Now shut up, and let me save the boy." he shot back with an amused look on his face. He then opened the bottle, pinched Percy's nose, and poured the contents in. Percy coughed once, and immediately regained a healthy color. When I felt his head, it was cool to the touch.

Crepsley then stepped back before saying, "There, now he will sleep for a while. I told you I could fix him. Now then, I believe you wanted to talk. Let's leave him to his sleep." I nodded and led him to the kitchen, where Tartarus was already seated and waiting for us. When Crepsley had taken a seat, we began.

"Now then, Larten Crepsley the vampire. Start talking! What is going on here?" I demanded.

He laughed before beginning. "As I have already explained, I am a vampire. The boy, Percy, I think you called him, is a half vampire. The River Acheron turned him into one. The only reason he did not pass out before now is because of where we are. Being in Tartarus prevents most hungers, otherwise its citizens would die before enduring eternal punishment. Make sense so far?" he asked, leaning back and steepling his hands.

I nodded and asked, "That makes sense, but you also said to disregard all ideas that we have about vampires. What can you do then? You also said that Percy is a half vampire. What is the difference?"

Crepsley sighed, and rolled his eyes. It was clear that he had explained this many times, and was tired of explaining this. "A vampire," he said, "Has many talents and weaknesses. I will start with the things that you believe in that are indeed true. We cannot, as I just showed, withstand sunlight. It burns us up. Many of us DO indeed sleep in a coffin, but not out of necessity. We do it for two reasons, the first being that if you get a nice one, they are actually surprisingly comfortable. The second reason is that they offer complete protection from the sun. This can be done with an inner room of a house as well. That is pretty much all of the myths that are actually true regarding vampires. We can be in contact with crosses, we can eat garlic, though some of us don't like the taste. I could sit here and bathe in holy water if I chose to. Stakes are not the only thing that can harm us, but they are a fairly good way to do it. A knife will do just as well. The key is that it has to stay in our heart long enough for us to die. Otherwise, we are rather fast healers. Now for powers of the vampires. A vampire is endowed with incredible strength and speed. The fastest recorded speed of a vampire that was not flitting, which I will explain momentarily, was well over 100 miles per hour. The strength of a vampire depends on how recently he or she has fed, but they can apply a fair amount of force when they want to. The most useful ability, in my opinion, that a vampire has, is the ability to 'flit'. This is the ability to move at just under the speed of light. If you are familiar with centaurs, it is similar to their ability to cross great distances in a short amount of time. As with strength, the speed depends on how recently we have fed. We heal at an exceedingly fast pace. We can also, when very hungry, exhale a gas that is a temporary paralytic, which helps us feed. Our nails harden and grow to vicious points, and these are our main method of defence. These are the powers of the vampires." He finally finished. I sat there staring at him for a few minutes.

Finally, I said, "Ok, that answers my first question, what about my second? What is the difference between a full vampire and a half vampire?"

He sat forward with a bright gleam in his eye. "Ah, now that" he said, "Is far more interesting. A half vampire is not as strong as a vampire, even after feeding. They are not as fast either. A half vampire though, can go into the sunlight. That gives them their other name: a Daywalker. They are able to flit like a vampire, and they have very fast healing abilities; not as fast as a full vampire, but fast none the less. They cannot breathe the gas that full vampires can. They do not need NEARLY as much blood as a full vampire does either, which is nice. They gain the same nails as well. This is everything that Percy will be able to do, plus a couple other things that I am not at liberty to describe to you. We vampires are a secretive race, and we have only survived by keeping our secrets. You are the first non vampire to be told all of these secrets."

Tartarus sat forward at this point, and asked, "How have the vampires kept their existence a secret though? How have we not heard anything about this? Bodies that are sucked dry do not make for keeping yourselves a secret?"

Crepsley snarled at this, and said, "It is an evil vampire who kills his victim! A fat, evil, gluttonous pig of a vampire eats that much! Vampires only need a bit. We do not harm our victims, and to get all that we need, we get many people and take a bit from a larger group. We only need so much, so we usually spread it out. The marks that are left are usually attributed to alien abductions, but the marks are rare."

"Alright," I said, "Can you change Percy back?"

Crepsley smiled that devilish grin again, before he answered, "No, I cannot change him back. The change is permanent. That is why I am here. If he is not helped, he will lose his mind. He will turn on friends and family, simply because he cannot help himself. The basic training will not take long, but to teach him the finer points, I will be traveling with you. This is not up for debate. Now then, do you have anything to eat? I am starved." Tartarus and I glared at him before answering him.

"No, I don't tend to keep blood on hand. You will have to go and find some." Tartarus said sharply.

Crepsley laughed, saying, "No you idiots! Did you really think that I could live off of blood alone? No, I need normal food as well." We then got him some food, and shortly after he was done, Percy walked in.

Percy's POV:

When I woke up, I was lying in my bed. The last thing I remembered was passing out in the arena. Now I was in my bed with a strange, metallic taste in my mouth. When I touched my tongue, my finger was red. I must have bit my tongue when I fell. Tartarus and Kronos must have carried me to my bed. I left the room and walked to the kitchen, figuring that Tartarus and Kronos would either be there or in the living room, and the kitchen was closer, so I would check there first.

When I walked inside, Tartarus and Kronos were both there. There was also a tall stranger there. He was tall, around 6 feet tall. He had blazing red hair with a clean-shaven face. His face had a white scar running down it, and his eyes were a dark brown with a yellowish halo around the irises. He was wearing a brown suit with a bright green undershirt and a yellow tie. His nails were longer than an average man's nails, but not massive. They were sharp though, very sharp with wicked points on them. Finally he spoke.

"So, boy, you are the newest Halfling, eh? Why the Acheron did that, I don't know, but you're stuck with it, so I am gonna teach you so that you don't lose your mind. Are you ready?" he finished before standing up.

"Who the hell are you? What do you mean lose my mind?" I demanded.

"I am Larten Crepsley, full vampire, and High Vampire Lord on the Council of the Night. As for losing your mind, it does not matter because it won't be happening to you. Now then, come with me. We have a lot to do in a short amount of time." he announced rather grandly. My jaw dropped. I wordlessly followed him back downstairs to that arena from hell… which had apparently undergone remodeling.

There was now a massive obstacle course set up around the circumference of the room. In the middle, there was a circle of logs. Crepsley walked to the center. Once he was in the center of the room, he began speaking.

"I will teach you here. As you can see, it has undergone a remodeling. While you were asleep, I had Tartarus set this up for us. Here, I can teach you to flit, and how to use your new weapon."

"What new weapon, Crepsley? I don't have any new weapons." I said with what I imagine was a confused look.

"Look at your hands, boy! Your nails are sharpening and hardening. Didn't you pay attention at all to the Acheron? She told you everything!" he snapped at me. I could tell that this was going to be an enjoyable person to be around.

"Well, when nothing happened after the pain, I kind of forgot about it. So what do you want me to do?" I answered, keeping my voice neutral.

"You are going to start with the obstacle course. Your nails are still sharpening and hardening, so you cannot train with them yet. This obstacle course is designed to teach you the hardest, but most useful skill vampires have: flitting. When you are able to flit, you will be able to do this entire course before a feather hit the ground. You will do the entire course over, and over, and over again, until you are forced to flit. This is the only way to teach a vampire to flit. Now then, BEGIN!" he finished with a shout, and pulled a feather from his pocket and dropped it. I didn't move because I was surprised, and when it hit the ground after maybe 5 to 10 seconds, he shouted again, "MOVE! You cannot attempt to beat the feather again until you have been through the whole obstacle course once. NOW GO!"

I scrambled over to the beginning of the course. The first challenge was a bunch of wooden logs on end. I had to jump from one to the other to get across to the next challenge. The logs were not big enough to put more than one foot on at a time. I managed to do that in about a minute without falling. I turned to Crepsley at this point and yelled at him.

"That alone took me a minute! How the hell do you expect me to do the whole thing in 5 to 10 seconds?"

"Keep going! You will get there eventually!" Crepsley shouted back with a devilish look in his eye. Seeing no other option but to continue, I carried on.

The next challenge was an empty hall way. The walls had holes all through them. I felt in my gut that whatever came out of those holes was not something I wanted to be hit with. I picked up a rock on the ground and threw it down the hallway. as soon as it entered, something began shooting out of the holes. I picked one of them up. It was a riot control beanbag. I took a hesitant step out into the hall. I immediately got nailed in the balls. Needless to say, I went down. Hard. I was in the fetal position before I even hit the ground. "FUCK" I swore. Crepsley had fallen over laughing at my stupid ass. I crawled through the hallway, taking several more hits to my back, arms, legs, pretty much anywhere that I had to get hit with. I don't even know how long that took. After I made it to the other side, I looked up at my next challenge, or more accurately, down. It was an old marine movie favorite: barbed wire over a mud pit. That wasn't too bad, and it was a nice break after the hell I had just been through. Towards the end, I my pants got caught on a barb, and they tore a bit.

My next challenge was an agility test. To pass it, I had to go around wooden logs that were colored red and blue. They were supposed to be salomed around. Next there was a long hallway with large pits in the floor that I had to jump over. Next, I came to a room where the floor was dropped out, and there were ropes hanging from the ceiling. They made a Z shape, and to get across to the other side, I would have to swing from each one to the next. When I was about half way, I found out for the first time on the course what happens if you fail. When I was going for about the 15th rope, my grip failed, and I fell. I was getting tired. When I hit the ground, an annoying buzzer sounded, and the floor bent down like a trampoline. When it launched me back up, I was shot with probably 100 rounds of paintballs, covering me in paint from head to toe. It hurt. I then landed back at the beginning of the rope swing. That landing hurt too. I decided that I needed a breather, and I just layed there and groaned. There wasn't a part of my body that did not hurt. Crepsley appeared over me, still laughing his ass off.

"Come on boy! You have to keep going! There is only one more challenge after this one, and then you get to try and beat the feather again! Oh, I haven't had this much fun in YEARS! Come on, boy, keep on going!" he said. I glared at him and slowly rose to my feet. And began the rope swing again. This time, I made it. Now I was to the last challenge. And it was a doozy.

Looking out over it, I knew that this was going to be the hardest part of the course. It started with a spinning bridge, then went on to a tight rope. It then had a beam that was about 40 meters long and about a foot wide. All along it, there were boxing gloves shooting out and retracting, a spinning log designed to knock me off; one was high, one was low. After that, there was a large checkered finish line. The final goal.

I made it over the spinning bridge just in time. I had to launch myself and catch the platform at the opposite end. The tight rope was harder. I ended up just hanging from it and sliding across it. I will figure it out later. Then there was the beam. It took me three tries to make it past the gloves, and another 4 to make it past the spinning logs. When I finally made it, I passed out on the finish line, too exhausted to move.

When I woke up, I was once again in my bed. There was a note on the bedside table. On it, someone, most likely Crepsley, had written "Get your ass to the training room. I let you sleep because you had already started later in the day. Today, you are going long, and hard, because we have to get moving." I ran down to the arena, where Crepsley was already waiting in the room.

"Get to the starting line, boy! The sooner you flit the sooner we can be done with this." he ordered.

I turned to him and said, "You know what? I don't think it is possible! I think you should do it to prove that it is!" Crepsley smirked.

"Fine, boy! Come to the center of the room and drop the feather, and I will do it." he said. I walked to the center and took the feather from him. Once he was at the starting line, I yelled "GO" and dropped the feather.

Crepsley took off, and there was a sonic boom, and he turned into a red blur. He made it all the way around, and caught the feather before it hit the ground. My jaw must have made a crater in the ground. He just smirked and told me to get to the start.

Now that I knew that it was possible, I was even more determined to do it. I failed the first try. And the next one, and the next one. It became one big blur of failure. Around the 10th attempt, I managed to do the tight-rope. When I went to bed that night, I was battered and bruised. I was completely wrecked. This happened the next day too. On the fourth day, something changed.

I was on the 10th attempt of that day. Yesterday, I managed to do it without falling, and now, I was trying to beat that damn feather. I still got nailed over and over again in the bean bag hell hall. That was where it happened.

When I made it to the hell hall, I was pissed. I was exhausted. I was covered in more bruises than I ever had been before. I started down the hallway from hell. This time, I felt a shift; a snap. The bean bags seemed to fly in slow motion. I just started dodging, and bobbing, and weaving. I saw a bag coming at my face, and immediately went into some matrix shit. I just leaned back and let it fly by. As soon as I stood back up, I took off. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and I just dodged it with ease. when I got to the finish line, I had not been hit by anything. I walked up to Crepsley.

"What just happened? Did you just slow it down? How did I do that?" I demanded.

He smirked, and said "It's about time, boy. You just managed to flit. Now get the starting line."

"But you just said that I did it! Why do I have to do it again?" I exclaimed.

"Because I told you that you are going to do this until you beat the feather. Now get to the starting line." he snapped. I ran to the start line. This time, I knew it was gonna be different. When he shouted go, I took off. I blew through the log challenge, so I decided to have a bit of fun. In the bean bag fun house, I did a spiral around the walls. I ran on the walls and the roof, and not a single bean bag touched me. When I got to pitfall playroom, I jumped over the pits doing flips and shit that were completely awesome. When I got to the ropes, I did not have to stop and aim up each rope, I just did it. One hand per rope, swingin' like Tarzan. Then, when I came to the spinning logs, and just parcore car hood slide over it, like in the action movies. When I made it to the finish line, the feather was only half way to the ground, so I ran over and caught it. He grinned the first honest, non devilish, grin.

"Finally, someone with the same sense of humor as me!" he said. I treated him with the same devilish grin.

"Now then, on to the combat training. Your nails should be hard enough by now, so I can train you." he said.

I grinned even wider, and said, "Oh I already figured that out. I have been trained in several forms of hand to hand combat."

"Well then, I suppose we can keep going then. I can teach you the specifics of nail fighting on the way. The only thing I should tell you is that since you are a halfling, you can hide your nails by retracting them. While retracted, they look like normal nails. Now then, lets go tell them we are ready to go." he said, hiding his shock rather well.

"Um… Yeah, can we leave in the morning for the next River? You have been beating the living shit out of me on this death trap, and I would really like a day to recover. Thanks! Good night." I walked out, and flopped on my bed, and passed out.

Kronos POV:

Tartarus and I were sitting in the kitchen eating lunch when Crepsley walked into the room. We looked up, and Crepsley nodded.

"He is ready. We can leave in the morning."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: And that wraps up chapter 13 folks! Special thanks to Gray Fox Ninja for continuing to be my beta. Read his story. I have 21 votes currently in, and I am really hoping for a lot more votes this time around. I want a lot of reviews too, because this was the last power gain chapter for a while. There is not much time till the team formation chapter, so you all need to get your votes in. I added a few people to the poll, and if you give me a character you want on the vote, I will put him on there, but I will warn you: At this point, it is gonna be hard for them to earn their way up to the point where they have a chance of winning. If you are going to suggest someone, I would suggest they are really awesome, because otherwise, there is no point. See you guys next chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello once again audiences! Thank you for continuing to read my story! I love the reviews I am getting (although I would appreciate people writing more than just excellent or awesome chapter) and encourage people to write more. This chapter is going to be about a river challenge and the reward, and then I intend to do one more river before closing down the poll so GET YOUR VOTES IN! Last time I checked, I only got one more since the posting the last chapter. COME ON GUYS! There are some pretty awesome people on there, and I like most of them, so I need you guys to tell me who you want! I will give you this much: The top three are Thalia, Moschion, and Reyna. If you don't like that, you better get your votes in! Even if you do like that, there still needs to be more on the team, so get voting! Now that I am done raving at you, ON WITH THE STORY!**

Percy's POV:

When we departed in the morning, Tartarus gave us a map.

"This map," he said, "Will update itself whenever I move things around. The house is back at the center, and if you need to come back, tap on the center three times and I will move you back home." We thanked him, and moved out.

We were an odd looking bunch; a tall, fiery haired man in a brown suit, a corded young man in a long black cape and an oakwood staff with tattoos running down his arms, and a tall man in a black cape with golden eyes. Thankfully, we were in Tartarus, so that doesn't really look THAT out of place, but still, we were an odd bunch.

When we stopped walking, we had journeyed what felt like about 10 miles. When we consulted the map, We were about halfway to the River Phlegethon. We set up camp for the night in the middle of a forest that had shown up on the horizon about an hour ago. Crepsley and I collected firewood while Kronos kept watch. I ran into a tree while flitting to collect firewood faster. Once Crepsley had finished laughing his ass off at me, we finished collecting and created a nice fire. Crepsley volunteered to keep watch first, so Kronos and I went to sleep quickly.

When Crepsley woke me for my watch, the fire was getting dim, so I flit to go and collect more wood. When I got back, nothing had changed. After an hour or so of keeping watch, I heard a noise. At first I thought that it is just an animal, probably a squirrel, but there are no non-violent, cute, happy squirrels, or any other peaceful woodland creatures in Tartarus. There was another rustling to my left. Then on my right. Then behind me. We were surrounded.

"Wake up! We have a problem." I said. I touched my right wrist, and Avenger grew out of it. I gripped my scythe as Kronos and Crepsley awoke. We all went back to back as Kronos pulled his scythe from his rift. I kicked the rest of the wood onto the fire, sending the blaze several feet into the sky and light for 20 yards in all directions. We were surrounded by a pack of at least 50 hellhounds.

"I bet I can kill more of them than you can." I whispered out of the side of my mouth to my companions.

"You're on Seaboy!" Kronos whispered back out of the side of his mouth. Hearing both of us, Crepsley decided to throw his two cents in.

"Can it! Both of you! At any rate, I could destroy you in that competition." he hissed back at both of us. At that moment, all of the hellhounds lunged for us. We all went into complete battle mode. We quickly discovered that there was far more monsters than we originally thought. There were empousi and laestrygonians outside of our little circle of light. I took off, and disappeared into the shadows. Kronos and Crepsley did like wise.

"Hey Kronos, how good is your night vision?" I called out.

"Fairly good. Why do you ask?" He called back.

"Crepsley, what about you?" I called out again, ignoring Kronos's question.

"I am a creature of night. What do you think?" He bit back at me.

"Good, because that means I can do… THIS!" I said as I summoned a sizeable amount of water over the fire. Everything was plunged into pitch black. Now, we were able to be the most effective. I slid silently down the tree, and began my killing spree. The laestrygonians were the biggest threat, so I ran towards them first.

"Who turned out the lights? Babycakes, was that you?" one of the laestrygonians called out.

"It wasn't me!" the one whom I assume must be Babycakes. I allowed myself a large grin. So this is Babycakes! It's a small world I suppose.

I sliced the back of their knees first, bringing them down on their face. I then sliced their shoulders so that the could not hurt me. They still didn't know where I was. I was a shadow, a living shadow of death. Finally, I decided to take pity on them and finish them. I finished Babycakes first, slicing her from crotch to the top of her head, splitting her into two symmetrical halves. Next, I went after the other one. I decided on a less gruesome death for this one, opting to instead decapitate it. That was easy enough, and that gives me a count of two. I dove back into the fray.

Kronos's POV:

When Percy put out the fire, I immediately understood what he was planning. I shot off towards the empousi. I hate empousi. I don't really know why, but I always have. I decided to take off all of their stupid bronze legs. Those could be melted down and used for something. After they are all down, I decided on being about the most scary thing they have ever faced. I put the end of my scythe down, and began to drag it, making that horrifying scraping noise as I approached them. I shot off, killing one after another. Let's just say that heads rolled. I now had 10 to my count, so I dove into the brawl.

Crepsley's POV:

I saw Kronos head off towards the empousi, and Percy head off towards the laestrygonians. I knew that they could take care of them, so I dove into the hellhounds. I have always prefered the hit and run tactics of guerrilla warfare, so I took them one at a time. I flit into the group, snatched one, and began a series of rapid jabs that were too fast for the eye to follow. After a few seconds, it melted into shadows. I repeated this over and over again. After about 3, I noticed Percy join the fray, and after about 11, Kronos joined in. They were both grim reapers, and embodiment of death. Anything that came into their path was instantly shredded. They would dash through a line of the hounds, holding their scythe behind them with the blade facing out, and take out the entire row in one swipe.

After about half an hour, they were all dead. We stood there, holding ourselves up on our knees and panting. There was gold dust everywhere. "42" I announced, "I killed 42 monsters! Beat that boys!"

"I killed 45" I heard from behind me. It was Percy. "Top that, Kronos!" he challenged.

"I did! I killed 50 of the monsters!" Kronos called out, thrusting his chest forward and driving the end of his scythe into the ground. I looked at them both with a new sense of respect. I had never been beaten before in a game of who kills more, thanks to my ability to flit and my guerrilla tactics.

Percy's POV:

"Now that that is over with, do we want to make another fire and sleep till morning, or do you guys just want to go?" I asked. We all agreed to move on, and by about midday, we reached the River Phlegethon.

The Phlegethon was a large river, and it seemed to be somewhere between Greek fire, and lava. It was extremely hellish looking. It had the ghostly green flames, but it flowed like lava. There was no spirit waiting for us like all the other rivers, so I walked straight up to it.

"Umm… Hello there Phlegethon! We want to talk to you! Your sister, the River Styx, sent us to you along with your other sisters. So, how about you come on up and have a chat with us?" I called out over the river. There was a ripple in the middle of the river, and then a plume of lava and fire shot into the air. When it all settled down, there was a tall man standing in the middle of the river.

"So, you must be the Spirit of the Phlegethon." I shouted up at him. He looked an arc angel of death. His robes we all fiery, and he had massive wings of fire on his back. On his left hip, he carried a greatsword, the largest type of sword a warrior could use. It was a powerful weapon with it's two handed grip, and it required a fighting style much different from my own. I really did not want to have to face that blade. Above his head, there seemed to be a halo, but it was hard to tell because it was made of fire, and his head was on fire too, so it was difficult to tell. Then I saw his face. He didn't really have one. At that moment, I realized that the Marvel Knights character known as Ghost Rider must have been loosely based on him. He was a skeleton. His eyes were like black holes. At last he spoke. Every word he said was drawn out and menacing. I had never met a person like this. He was not exerting any power or aura, but he made me scared just looking at him. When he spoke, I almost wished he hadn't.

"So… You must be the young hero that my sisters spoke of. You bear the Marks of the Heroes, which is something they did not tell me about. They mark you as a great hero, one of great power, but at the same time, much caring for the world you defend. I will help you, but only if you can defeat my champion. Your companions may help; I do not care, but you are the only one whom I may help. Do you accept?" he said. His voice was ancient. It sounded like the voice of a warrior that has lost everything, and does not see the world in the same way anymore. He sounded weary, but powerful.

I looked behind me at my companions. They both nodded wordlessly. When I turned back to answer, something was different in my voice. My words were my own… sort of. They were more powerful, ancient, and they sounded like the voice of an ancient warrior. My way of speaking was changed as well, becoming more formal.

"We shall fight your champion, and we shall crush him. I am the bearer of the ancient marks, and you shall bear witness that I am indeed worthy of them. Bring out your Champion." I spoke in a booming voice, and every word fell like a hammer blow. As I spoke, the Marks began to glow. They burned through my shirt, incinerating it instantly. My cape was unharmed, which I found odd, but clearly, these Marks had a mind of their own. I was kind of assuming that the Marks were what was messing around with my voice, but hey, I'm not complaining. If I had been speaking on my own, I would have probably shit myself and been unable to keep a shake out of my voice.

The spirit nodded, and called out over the river, "I call forth my champion! Rise, Balrog, the champion of the Phlegethon." From the river, there was an enormous plume of lava, and from it, a massive creature appeared.

It was at least 50 times my size. It was basically a gigantic skeletal man-bull made of crusted, and in some places still burning, lava. On the head, it had horns that curved down around its face in a shape similar to an omega. On its back, it had a pair of massive skeletal wings that had a membrane of fire between the skeletal bits. In its hand, it carried a massive whip that my ADHD mind immediately labeled as a string of glow sticks, but was probably just fire. All in all, it was horrifying.

As it stepped toward us, with each step making an ominous boom, I turned to my companions and said, "Well, now that I have basically fucked us all over, does anybody have a plan?"

"Run. Scream. Cry. Curl into the fetal position and suck my thumb. These all seem like excellent plans to me. Anybody else?" Crepsley said sarcastically.

"Shut up Crepsley! I am serious. We are getting out of here, and to do that, we have to beat this thing. Now then, I can try and use water to cool the lava, but I don't think it will stay cool for long, so we need to destroy it before it can relight itself. To do that, you two are gonna have to take out it's legs. If we knock it over, maybe it will shatter because it is solidified at that point from the water. If it doesn't shatter, well, then we improvise." I said, trying to think of what Annabeth would do in this situation.

"That is a horrible plan. Do you want to die? Because that is an excellent way to do it." Crepsley said as Kronos nodded in agreement with him.

"Do you have a better plan?" I snapped back at him. Neither of them offered any alternative plans, so when the Balrog reached the land, we set the plan into motion.

First, I began to concentrate. I had never summoned this much before. I concentrated harder than any ADHD child has ever concentrated before. I close my eyes, thinking of the sea. I began to hear the crashing surf, the roar of the ocean. All of a sudden, I felt a snap somewhere deep in my core. The Marks began to glow, and later, Kronos and Crepsley told me that my eyes were glowing a brilliant sea green. They both backed away from me, more than a little scared. I ignored them and stepped forward. I thrust out my arms, concentrating on the water in the air. There may not be as much in the air of Tartarus as there is in the Mortal world, but there is still a goodly amount. I summoned it all. From every corner of Tartarus, the water came. I forced it into its liquid phase by binding the molecules together (I like water. I decided to research it in my spare time figuring that the more I knew about it, the more I could do with it. Annabeth was rather impressed that I could focus enough to research anything.) At this point, I had a massive amount of water at my call. It was a mass about the size of a small lake. I used the water, and sent it all at the Balrog. It gave a horrible roar. Think like a lion, but then throw the bellow of a bull in there, then add a cheetah's scream in there, along with a lot of other animals I did not recognise. A howler monkey and a screech owl may have been in there too. Its fire was extinguished and its lava was solidified. It froze, unable to move an inch.

"GO! GO NOW! I will keep this up as long as I can. You need to go and get its legs! GO!" I shouted. They ran towards it's legs with Kronos summoning his Scythe and Crepsley flitting all the way there. I had turned the water into a massive whirlpool around the Balrog, putting out the lava and fire whenever it tried to relight itself. I was doing well, but I was losing energy quickly.

Kronos's POV:

When Percy summoned all of that water, I was amazed, and, a little scared. This kid could bring down all of Olympus if he wanted to, and I doubt that he has even discovered everything he can do. Gods help us all if he ever turns. When the water actually worked to put the fire and lava out, I was astonished. I did not think it would actually work. When he yelled though, I took off. I went for the left knee and Crepsley went for the right.

As I ran, I tried to come up with a way to disable the leg. I decided that slashing out whatever it had for tendons would be the best way to do it. I ran up the leg, using my time powers to slow my fall enough that whenever I started falling, I was able to put my foot up on its leg before I fell. It is was a really complicated maneuver that I really had never managed to pull off before, but this time I managed. I ran up his leg, and slashed at his hip. its roared again, and I ran down its leg, heading for its knee. I slashed that too. Finally I reached its ankle. I cut that tendon. I then headed over to Crepsley. He had decided to take the easier path of simply drilling through its shin with that super speed of his he called flitting. He was already a good half-way through, so I went to the other side and began working on that side. We made short work of it, and it soon fell. Crepsley and I cheered as the beast fell, its head landing near Percy.

Crepsley's POV:

When the beastie fell, I thought we were done. I cheered right along with Kronos. Then, it shifted. All at once, it reignited. and let loose its hellish roar. It swept Kronos and I away, and as my vision went dark, I saw it turn its attention onto Percy.

Percy's POV:

When the Balrog fell, I was exceedingly glad. I could not have kept the whirlpool going any longer. I pulled the water back to my self as it fell. Its head landed only a little bit from me. I turned to talk to the spirit, when I heard movement behind me. Then I heard a sound like the world's largest gas oven being lit. Then, I heard the roar.

"Shit" I said quietly as I turned around. The thing swept Crepsley and Kronos away. It then turned its attention on me. I stepped back. Now, I was on my own. I pulled the water back to me, and used it to heal myself. This was gonna be hard.

I pressed my left wrist. I wanted to try my new broadsword. As good as I may be with a scythe now, I am still better with a sword. It slid from my wrist, the hilt ending at just the right point where I could catch it in my left hand. I began to slowly walk around the beast, dragging the tip of my sword behind me leaving a trail of sparks in my wake.

"So, you are the infamous Balrog. I have never even heard of you. You remind me of a friend of mine. He is commonly known as the Minotaur. Balrog is too much of a pain to say, so I am going to call you Steve." I said confidently. Or at least it was supposed to be confident. It apparently sounded confident enough, because the Balrog roared back at me.

"You know, I have not named this sword yet. Maybe you will inspire me to come up with something. I really hope so, because I would like to name this thing. Now then, LETS PARTY." I crowed. I ran toward him, channeling the strength that I just got from the water. I used the water to launch myself up on top of Steve's head.

"How about Whirlpool? Do you like that one?" I taunted as I gouged out its left eye.

"Or maybe Tidal Wave. I like that one, what about you?" I said as I gouged out its other eye, effectively blinding it. It roared in anger.

"I guess you don't like that that one either. Oh well, there are plenty of other o….. OOF" I grunted as he caught me with one of his hands, knocking me down. I would like to be able to say that I managed to land on my feet, but the sad truth is, I landed flat on my ass. I jumped back up, and charged the Balrog again. This time, I went for his wings because now he could not see me getting behind him. I managed to get behind him and run up his back using my nails as ice picks.

"How about Ender, or the Monster Mangler?" I shouted out.

"What do you think of that?" I asked him as I sliced off his right wing. He roared in pain.

"Oh, so now I am getting to you! I think that I am finally getting through that thick skull of yours!" I yelled as I cut his left wing off. He roared again. I ran to his shoulder, planning to severe his left arm. When I got there though, he knew where I was going and grabbed me off of his shoulder. He snatched me up and threw me into the ground. When I hit, I made a trench in the ground. When I tried to get up, he decided to get smart. He slammed his fist onto me, putting me into a crater about the size of a house. I realised that my Marks were glowing. Apparently, they have the qualities of the Styx's blessing when they are glowing. Good thing or I would probably be dead. That's not to say it didn't hurt though, because it hurt like hell. It didn't stop pain.

At that point, the great beastie decided to use its glow stick string for the first time. Actually, I realized that it was a flogg, but it really does not matter. It really hurt. Over and over again, the flog fell. I couldn't get up, and I was getting tired.

Suddenly, a picture of Annabeth came to my mind. I looked down at my sword, and if flashed briefly, almost like it was saying "Hey bro, we have a job to do! Get off your ass and let's go!"

I grunted as another blow fell. Great, now my sword has a conscience. But it was right, and I did need to do this for Annabeth, or she will have died for nothing. I rose to my feet slowly, painfully, as blow after blow rained down upon me. I climbed to the top of the crater, taking every blow. I got to the steep edge, and plunged my sword into it to pull myself out. It sank into the earth, and when it did, the sword flashed a brilliant golden silver, mixed with some blue and sea-green. It was a beautiful light, but it was only there for a moment. When it faded, there was something new in me. I stood up, and looked up at him. As the flog fell, I timed it perfectly, and this time, when it was about to hit me, I cut the end off.

He looked at his whip with a kind of dumb-struck face. I think he was a little disappointed.

Apparently his eyes had healed. Well, that just makes life a little bit harder. Something was giving me instructions in my head.

It was a woman's voice, and my first thought was that that was not my not mine, but that didn't matter, because it was talking now.

_"The sword has unlocked the last bit of your inheritance as the son of Poseidon. You almost unlocked it in Mount St. Helen's, but your body was not ready for it, so you have not been able to do it again. The last bit is control over Earth. Beware: This is the most difficult power for you to control, and it is the most dangerous of all of your powers. You may use your sword to control Earthquakes, but it will not be without a cost when you use this. It is the only way for you to defeat the Balrog, so go now, and bring the foul beast down. We will meet in person soon, but go now. GO!"_ the lady shouted in my head. Usually I would be concerned about hearing strange voices in my head, but now was not really the time to worry about it. The voice was right though. I can't beat this monster unless I use this ability.

I readied my sword above my head, and plunged it half-way into the spiky surface of Tartarus with a yell. There was a great crack, and from my sword, a great rift opened up and headed straight for the Balrog, widening all the way until it was big enough to swallow it up. The Balrog plunged into the darkness, and the great crack closed up, and the Balrog was no-more. I walked up to where the Balrog had fallen, and I said to the spot, "You know, I think I'll call it Last Breath, τελευταία του πνοή for the Greeks, and exspirans for the Romans. It was your last breath for sure, and I think it will be many other monsters' last breath as well."

I heard clapping behind me, a slow, sarcastic clap. The Spirit was clapping for me. "Very good, very good! Do you know that you are the only hero to ever bring down the Balrog? Very good, young Perseus. Now then, as promised, I will help you. I am aware that you learned to use a scythe recently. I am also aware that to use a scythe, you must also wear a cape or robe. I have a very special cape for you. What it can do will be for you to find out, but I can tell you this: It is like no other cape in the world. It also has a pretty bad-ass hood on it for when you must keep your identity a secret. Now then, good bye!" he said as he tossed the cape to me. It was indeed an odd cape.

It was made of some sort of material that absorbs all light. It was like looking into a blackhole. It was incredibly light, but it seemed to be very tough. I shrugged and put it on, because my cape had been destroyed in the fight. It was the perfect length. When I put the hood up, it concealed everything above my nose, but I could see through the hood like it wasn't even there. It was rather impressive. I bid the Spirit goodbye, and headed off to go wake up Kronos and Crepsley.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Annnd that is the end of chapter 14! If you don't like the name of the sword, put another one in the review and I will change it if it's good. You have to give me the Latin and Greek translations with it. The next chapter will be the gathering of the team, so GET THE VOTES IN! I am at 22 votes, and that is pitiful in comparison with how many people are reading this story! Also, I don't know how many people are going to be on the team, so I need you people to tell me how many you want in a review. It has to be more than 7 people. Also, please just review anyway, especially if you are already voting on the number of people on the team, because you are already posting a review, so why not add the review part of it? In other news, I have finally read the House of Hades, and the story will not be changing because of it. If you want an explanation of why it is different, well lets just say that they are in Tartarus' mind, and that it is different there. Tartarus is good because I decided that he is going to be good, and so… Yeah… Basically, this is my own version of Tartarus, so please don't bitch at me telling me that it doesn't follow the storyline of Rick Riordan. If you need a better explanation, maybe I will do a chapter on it, or, you can just say that Tartarus was remodeled. Thanks again to my Beta, Gray Fox Ninja for continuing to do a superb job. Read his story for some more awesomeness. Lastly, I must give credit where credit is due. The Balrog is from Lord of the Rings, it was the monster that pulled Gandalf into a massive abyss right after he delivered his most famous line: YOU SHALL NOT PASS! The cape comes from the TV show known as The Cape. Finally, Crepsley comes from the book series Cirque Du Freak. See you guys next chapter!**


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